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If you or a loved one has been recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, just managing the information onslaught can be a real challenge. I know it was for me, and I came from a family steeped in diabetes history. In fact, my grandfather was in the first generation of diabetics to take insulin for the disease.

A decade after being diagnosed, I still encounter things about managing the disease that surprise me. Here are five facts about type 2 diabetes that might surprise you:

5. Exercise can actually increase blood sugar.

It doesn't seem to make much sense. Exercise is supposed to burn sugar and bring blood glucose levels down. Intense workouts, however, can have the opposite effect. That's because the body releases stress hormones that tell your body to increase available sugar as fuel for your muscles.

4. Testing gets expensive...

Most blood glucose meters are either very cheap or free. Unfortunately, the test strips needed to operate them aren't. (Companies that make razors use a similar model.) Retail prices for some strips of some meters exceed $1.50 each. If you test five times a day (before meals and bed time, for example), testing supplies can run you more than $225 a month.

3. ... And it's not all that accurate.

The Food and Drug Administration requires that blood sugar monitors be only so accurate. That tolerance--within plus or minus 20 percent of the actual blood glucose level--means that a monitor may read normal when your blood sugar is actually high. Or it may read high when your glucose levels are actually normal. The good news: Most meters are more accurate than the FDA requires, and the agency is considering stricter standards.

2. It's not only about sugar.

I still find it funny that people think diabetes is about sugar. The disease, still called "sugar diabetes" by many older Americans, isn't caused by overeating sugary foods. In fact, we don't know what causes either main type of diabetes, though scientists and physicians have many excellent ideas.

For type 2, being overweight, which can easily come from eating too many sweets or from just eating too much and not exercising enough, plays a big roll. But there are also genetic and environmental contributors. And there's a surprising number of new cases in populations that are considered thin. Misconceptions abound.

1. There's a silver lining to having type 2 diabetes.

Finding out you have type 2 diabetes can be devastating. Managing the disease is expensive and frustrating, and it generally requires major life changes. But the diagnosis can also be a wake up call. In most cases, gaining tight control over diabetes requires frequent exercise and healthy eating habits--things that are good for diabetes and also good for general health. Everything you do that's good for diabetes is good for the rest of you.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes 10 years ago, there weren't many places to turn to for help. I tried a support group, but I was the youngest person in the class by 20 years; the other recently-diagnosed patients faced different challenges than I did.

The few people I knew my age with diabetes had type 1, a disease that seemed at the time as different from type 2 as arthritis. I could find no one, it seemed, who was dealing with the same disease and circumstances that I was.

What a difference a decade makes. Thanks to social networks, bloggers, FaceBook and Twitter, rich communities exist that allow the afflicted to connect with one another and share information.

A lot of people might have scoffed at the benefit of such sites just a few years ago; really, who in their right mind would turn to a chat room or bulletin board for medical information? And who would publicly share details of their disease?

Count me among those initial skeptics. But I've come around. I like connecting with other diabetics--especially as my disease has progressed and become more complicated to manage. Now I use Twitter to share blood sugar readings, read blogs by other writers with diabetes and share interesting articles on my Facebook profile. While I still distrust much of the medical information I find, I feel more connected to people suffering from the same chronic illness as me--and I feel as though I have a community of support.

And it turns out I'm not alone: Studies show that such online activity helps mute the loneliness, stress and depression symptoms that attend chronic conditions like heart disease, arthritis, celiac disease and diabetes.

In one study, for example, women who participated in breast cancer groups online boosted their quality of life and decreased depression.

Want to connect?

But which online group is right for you? There are dozens of major health social networks on sites like Web MD, iVillage and Yahoo! Groups, and many smaller groups on Facebook, Ning and other social platforms. Here are a few groups to consider:

Patients Like Me

Health Central

Inspire

Cure Together

Alliance Health

Disaboom

TuDiabetes

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We all know that a good laugh can help you feel better. But can humor also improve your health?

The late Norman Cousins thought so. When the writer and editor was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in the 1970's, his self-prescribed treatment included humorous TV shows and films, which he credited for helping him recover. He called laughter "internal jogging."

Three decades later, there's new research that may support Cousins' belief. In a study of 20 diabetic patients, half of whom were exposed to humor as part of their treatment, those in the laughter group had higher levels of good cholesterol (HDL) and fewer signs of inflammation in their blood vessels (a possible risk for heart disease) than those not exposed to humor.

To be sure, a study with only 20 subjects is far from conclusive, and it has yet to be published. Still, it follows other research suggesting that laughter may help increase blood flow, reduce levels of stress hormones, and enhance immune function.

By itself, laughter therapy won't cure cancer or keep you from getting sick. But it certainly can't hurt. At the very least, it may make your pursuit of better health more enjoyable. Watch, for example, how some yoga practitioners are incorporating laugher into their routines.

One physician, Dr. Brad Nieder, has gone so far as to become a stand-up comedian. If further research corroborates that, as the Bible says, a "merry heart doeth good like a medicine," then the good doctor may indeed be on to something by keeping people in stitches.

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