New app offers diabetes information with dash of humor

SALT LAKE CITY — One of the basic functions of humor is to make people feel better about difficult situations. A group of software developers has incorporated that idea into a new app for Apple iPhones, iPods and iPads for people living with diabetes.

The app, called “Shot in the Arm,” made by Nashsmile, delivers brief and simple diabetes management advice, as well as humor — for example, ways to handle an insulin reaction and jokes, such as “Whoever said ‘no man is an island’ has never seen my stomach in the bath tub.”

“The ideas come at exactly the right time,” Richard Nash of Nashsmile said. Nash has had Type 1 diabetes for 42 years. “You check your phone one morning, you read a brief, simple idea to help you control your diabetes, you try it that day, it works — and all of a sudden, it’s not a diabetes management tip from a book or website. It’s a part of your life.”