If you are reading this article, congratulations! You're already participating in an indispensable and growing area of diabetes care called "Information Therapy," which goes by the official acronym "Ix."

The idea is simply that "giving the patient information relevant to his or her current moment in care … will improve the patient's overall health and outcomes." Now doesn't that sound far too simple to be bona fide therapy? Ahem, yes…

You might be surprised to learn that volumes of research papers and even official medical conferences have been built around this concept. Check out Informationtherapy.org, a non-profit center that "aims to advance the practice and science of information therapy to improve health, consumer decision-making and healthy behaviors."

A big part of the Big Idea seems to be encouraging doctors and other healthcare professionals to empower their patients with information — rather than being annoyed or intimidated by patients in the know.

In the case of diabetes — the ultimate self-managed disease — one might argue that information is what patients need more than anything else. Those of us who have it can take our disease management into our own hands, become liberated from blind reliance on our doctors, and with a little luck, avoid the ugly complications of poorly controlled diabetes. Those of us who don't have it are likely to "let our diabetes go" for too long and suffer the consequences.

To be clear, I'm not talking about blaming the patient for "non-compliance" here, but rather about access to good guidance on what a person with diabetes can and should do to keep their health in check. We patients don't always get all the right information we want and need, which is one reason we turn to the Web, to find each other and exchange ideas. New research actually shows that more people look to health web sites than to doctors nowadays when seeking information about diabetes, according to a morefocus study.

This lack of concise information was actually the driving factor behind Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes, the new book I recently co-authored with Dr. Richard Jackson of Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Our aim was to create a clear and straightforward guidebook for achieving a long and health, complication-free life with diabetes. This is accomplished through learning to understand and monitor 5 crucial tests:

• hemoglobin A1c (average blood glucose levels)
• blood pressure (indicating heart health)
• lipid profile (cholesterol and triglycerides)
• microalbumin (demonstrating kidney damage)
• annual eye exam

These 5 simple medical tests are currently the best and only measures indicating each person's own individual diabetes health risks. Yet despite being widely accessible and easy to administer, fewer than 42% of adults with diabetes have either had these tests, or understand what the results mean, according to an April 2006 report by USA Today.

In other words, our book is Information Therapy pure. Dr. Jackson sees thousands of patients every year at the world-class Joslin Center. Sadly, many of them have already developed complications by the time they make it to the clinic. "If only these people had access to the information on these essential tests early on, they may well have been able to avoid getting to the bad stuff," he says.

Obviously, even the best medical advice can only help you if you actually act on it. Buy you're much more likely to be proactive if you have precise goals that you honestly believe you can achieve.
As we point out in our book, your goals shouldn't necessarily be test-result numbers, but rather the physical things you can do in your everyday life to achieve those good results: be it exercise, small changes in your diet, trying new medications or devices, or committing to having certain tests done more frequently.
And how should you know which actions might be right for you? Why, Information Therapy, of course. Read as much as you can. Attend diabetes talks and support sessions at your local hospital. And don't forget to use the Web. Let's face it, the Internet has granted us access to a ton of medical information that was previously locked up, immediately and for free. Meanwhile, individual publishing platforms like web logs are humanizing the information by allowing a huge variety of people to share their personal stories and experiences across geographies and time zones. You might call that "Information Group Therapy," or "IxG."

Amy Tenderich hosts the popular web log www.diabetesmine.com and is co-author of the new book, "Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes," the first-ever hands-on guide to achieving a long and healthy life with diabetes. Find out how to get your free copy today.