Today Sarah of Sugabetic  wrote an interesting blog post aptly named Why Blog? about the driving force  behind her blogging a medium used to decimate information about diabetes online.

While her experiences in providing information about diabetes is very unique to herself,  she points out in her post that it is the camaraderie she receives from the DOC that keeps her going. Reading her blog has been an inspiration to me and others as well.

Her post  got me  thinking on all the information about diabetes out there and the role Sarah’s and others like this diabetes management blog play in the diabetes world.

Its hard to imagine that its only been about 10 years since the inception of  blogging, the concept has gained a huge popularity  and with millions  of blogs out there covering every conceivable topic even as focused as providing information about diabetes, it seems that all the subjects has been saturated.

Why are blogs a popular medium to transfer information about diabetes?

As Fat Cat Anna another diabetic blogger, retweeted reply to the why blog question humorously put it  ” I do it ’cause I have verbal diarrhea of the finger tips!”.

Blogs began as online diaries where people would document portions of their lives and share them with friends and family, this evolved to the blogging framework we have today.

The reason blogging has become a  popular medium in dispersing information about diabetes is because it is an opportunity for one to express themselves and their opinions on the subject and while their opinion might not be the right one, it is still theirs to make.

In our world, the very nature of the disease and its framework has led to one unique way of disseminating the  information about diabetes. We all know that Diabetes is an incurable disease effectively managed by self management techniques on diet, exercise and  medication.

With blogs one can share their information about diabetes with others in the same diabetic community going through the same predicaments.

as Sarah so eloquently put it, ” I blog because it’s my vent. It my journal or diary (whichever you prefer) that I choose to let other people read if they want to. Granted, I don’t write every little thing in it, but it’s there when I need it. For me, diabetes is not something I can go to my sister, brother, friend and start a conversation by saying “Hey, you know that feeling when you’re going low and your lips begin to tingle…” because they don’t know. They’ll never know that “I feel like I’ve just ran a marathon” thirst that comes with a high glucose level. They’ll never personally understand the reason we rejoice over having a good BG day when the rest of the week we’ve been slap-give-out tired and lumps on logs because the war inside of us has given us out. But I know that I can come here, write (or type) what’s going on and it seems to help relieve most of the stress that comes along with the D.”

The Diabetic Online Community

The flow of information about diabetes  in the DOC which blogs play a pivotal role in disseminating means that at a moments notice, I diabetic can find any information about diabetes at the click of a mouse and if they have any questions or follow ups to the topic, they can easily add to the discussion using the comment section.

I personally follow a few blogs of those diabetics who have added invaluable and tangible information about diabetes, it helps me sieve through misinformation and erroneous campaigns that are easily placated on the internet. Some of the most influential bloggers in the DOC can be found on one of my earlier posts, I named top 50 diabetic bloggers of 2010.

Information about diabetes with ease

Blogging platforms have  made it easy for someone to start a blog. The most popular platforms will offer to start and host your blog so you do not have to invest any personal finances at the beginning of your blogging endeavors.

1. WordPress

2. Blogger

3. Type pad

If you are looking for more than your basic blogging platform however you should try hpages.com for they will offer more than just a free website.

They will allow you extra features like: 1. Unique design templates 2.  Over 300 MB webspace. and other loaded extras like Forums, newsletters, a member area, counter, guestbook, survey, contact form, pinboard (a really great Web 2.0 tool), galleries, link lists, password protection, gimmicks (for example our users can turn off the right mouse click on their websites with one click, in order to make copying content more difficult), intro, etc. for a complete and unique endeavor in providing information about diabetes.

They are definitely easy to use as well for those without any design experience, with a simple customizable interface, it took me literally 10 minutes to create the  controlling diabetes , information about diabetes website below.