Sugar Turned On Me

I went to visit some friends the other night for their weekly social gathering, which apparently involves snacks. When they put out two bowls of cookies, the host rattled off some numbers: the amount of carbs, the amount of calories and the serving size. He also pointed out that one bowl was wheat and gluten free, which would be more important for one of the guests with allergies than me.

I was struck by the consideration. I bring up that I’m diabetic to friends, but it’s not exactly featured in every conversation. It’s not even featured in every conversation about food. That someone would remember and give me a heads up was huge not to mention very gracious.

Most people with chronic illness don’t want to be the center of attention. Having a problem that doesn’t go away already makes one feel abnormal. Drawing attention to it raises it to sideshow freak levels. The desire to stay out of the conversational spotlight does make the desire to do things like share food a little complicated.

I do think that if you’re going to have people over for food, having a working knowledge of their allergies and restrictions is a good idea. That way you avoid serving the vegetarians meat or having to learn the fast and hard way how to administer an epipen. But the trick is making allowances without pointing a sign at the person you’re making the allowances for and shouting “this is the defective one!”

My friend did it right and I’m grateful for that. I hope that when I host my next soiree (well, when my wife hosts it and I stand there and look all host-y) that I can match the level of graciousness as well as the level of discreetion. Because the whole point is to make those you welcome into your home feel included, not singled out. After all, awkwardness is never a welcome guest.

Recently, my wife saw a man who had a condition called Trigger Finger. This does not mean that he regularly made outlaws eat lead for their crimes against the townsfolk, but that he had a condition associated with his diabetes. I decided to see what Auntie Wikipedia had to say about it.

Trigger finger gets it’s name, not from the finger curling, but from it being released. The condition is characterized by your tendon and your tendon sheath being of mismatched size. This results in your index finger (sometimes middle or ring) cracking when you extend it. Later on, it becomes painful to extend and if you unclench a fist, the finger will remain curled until force is applied and it pops into position as if a trigger was pulled.

The diseases is ideopathic. Despite what Gregory House thinks, this has nothing to do with idiots but just means that the cause is uncertain. It has been noticed in people with diabetes and is on the list of lovely things like neuropathy and heart disease that might come about as complications.

Trigger finger is treated with cortezone injections and sometimes with surgery.

While I’m glad to know in advance about yet another thing that might happen to me, I’m not looking forward to questioning the health of my finger every time I hear it pop. Through martial arts training, playing with sharp objects and basically being a klutz now and again, my fingers have had enough to deal with without the prospect of permenantly throwing gang signs.

Then again, maybe I could form my own diabetic gang? Hyperglycemic for life, punk.

When I got diagnosed as hyperglycemic, it was recommended I do 30 min of exercise a day, every day. I followed through with that for a while, though more recently I’ve slacked off a good bit. I still try to do things like vigorously use stairs now and again, but I know it’s just a trick to make myself feel better.

For others though, this may be a way to prevent type 2 diabetes.

A study released recently suggest that as little as seven and half minutes of exercise a week could better your ability to control blood sugar. The doctor who did this research states that it’s a “dramatically different view from current thinking.” If the results hold out to further testing, this could be huge for the time challenged, hyperactive yet chairbound populace of the United States.

The suggestion is doing four to six repetitions intense physical activity for 30 seconds twice a week. Even I, the slack de la slack, can find time for that.

The sad news is that if you’re already diabetic, higher levels of exercise still seem to be the recommendation. And whether you’re diabetic or not, check with your doctor to make sure that you’re doing the exercise regimen that is right for you.

But if you find that the last time you ran was during recess on a playground or if the only thing that raises your heart rate is watching the economic news on CNN, then you may want to check into this guy’s research and see if when it comes to exercise if a little dab ‘ll do ya.

Link: Short, Intense Workouts May Fight Diabetes

I don’t know the actual statistics, but I’m betting that choclatiers find this one of their busiest times. It’s really hard to separate thoughts of Valentine’s day from heart shaped boxes full of decadent goodness. Being diabetic, though, can make said boxes of chocolate seem less than desireable.

As I’ve discussed before here, candies are not completely off the menu if you’ve got diabetes and a little chocolate daily may even be good for you. It does mean you need to watch your intake, pay attention to the serving size listed on the package and be sensible about it.

It’s best, also, to keep in mind that good chocolate is better for you that cheap chocolate. Chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa solids tends to cost a bit more, but more cocoa solids mean less other stuff, including sugar.  Your opinion may very, but well made dark chocolate I find to be a more pleasurable experience for the tongue as well, at least until we get up to around 85%+, at which point I find it better for baking and hot chocolate than simple nibbling.

At Target the other day, I saw a box of chocolates, a metallic heart shaped tin, that starteed at 60% chocolates and went up: The Ghiradelli Intense Love Heart Box .  I won’t say that this is exactly what every diabetic needs, but if chocolate is an option for your diabetic valentine, then I’ d recommend something like this over a box of random nougats. Lindt also makes a good collection of dark chocolate delights, including a 60% truffle.

No matter the quality of the chocolate though, know your limits. One square or truffle between meals may be okay for you. A stack is likely not to be.

Chocolate is one of the great joys in life and I was very happy when I found out that I could still have it in moderation. If you have the restraint to take it in a bite at a time, I recommend looking into the darker side of cocoa confectionry. There are few other places you have to give the excuse of “no, medically I need the good stuff”. Make use of the one’s you have.

Sunday morning, I felt a bit off. My head was fuzzy. I didn’t feel sick; I just didn’t feel right. And I’d not drank the night before, so it wasn’t a hangover.

I look down at the veins on the back of my hands and see they’re prominent and puffed up.  I raise my arms, they get less prominent. I put them down and they fill up like firehoses just as they turn on the hydrant.

I say to my wife, who is far more medically knowledgeable, “I have a question for you. Probably a very dumb question. Do you think my blood pressure is up?”

I felt silly asking this because I was sure the answer would be that I was over reacting. My veins are a little puffy, this is not cause for panic.

Instead, I get told that yes, my BP looks to be elevated and I should go drink some water. This and some deep breathing fixed it.  A short meditation on the morning’s activities reminded me that I’d had a lot more coffee with breakfast than I’m used to having daily so that probably contributed to it.

Yes, I’m getting to a point.

There’s a trick to listening to your body. It’s not one I’ve mastered by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s simple: Don’t assume anything is a dumb question. Feeling sleepy in the afternoons? Don’t ignore it. Have a random pain? Don’t assume it’s going to go away. Take what your body does seriously.

A friend of mine recently told me that he may have had a heart attack. He told me this like he was asking if I’d seen Recent Action Flick or if I’d like to go sing kareoke some time. He had gone to the doctor because he’d had an elevated heart rate and shortness of breath along with some other early warning signs of a heart attack, but no chest pain.

As they were setting him up with blood pressure medication, the nurse told him “Next time, don’t wait for the chest pain.”

The human body is an amazing instrument complete with a number of backup and early warning systems. But as clever is the body is, the mind is moreso and has to be in order to rule the body properly. We can ignore signals our body is sending and this is a good thing: if you’re trapped in a burning building, you want to be able to shut off the pain from a sprained ankle so you can get out. Hunger that comes on when you’re no where near food is unwelcome and it’s best that you can ignore it. But as humans tend to push things to their limits, especially in fast paced Western culture, the ability to ignore your body is sometimes a bit of a liability.

If I’d asked the dumb question of why I was suddenly gaining weight and unable to stay awake in the afternoons a month or two earlier than I did, who knows how much better control I’d have over my blood sugar. If I’d not ignored or rationalized things like acid reflux or constant dehydration or any of the other things my body was telling me was wrong, I might never have gotten my diagnosis as hyperglycemic in the first place.

So if you’re body is doing something weird and you don’t know, please learn from the mistakes of someone who was quick to dismiss too many concerns as being inconsequential. When it comes to your health, make a point of petitioning those who know more than you. There are no dumb questions… usually just dumb choices.

The phrase “gastric condom” sounds like the name of a punk band, but in fact is a real device being tested to combat obesity and type 2 diabetes. The concept is that there’s a device that is inserted through the digestive tract and that puts a membrane around the first 60 centimeters of the small intestine. The membrane’s presence causes the stomach and intestines to react in such a way that reduces the absorption of nutrients and causes rapid weight loss, equivalent to gastric band surgery. The process promises to be cheaper than gastric bypass or gastric band surgery, is more easily reversible and would require little change in eating habits.

Somehow, I’m still wary of it.

I have known people who have gotten gastric band surgery and had some dramatic results with it.  I understand their decision and won’t fault them for it, but I’m a little hesitant to consider surgical alteration to lose weight. I’m only slightly less iffy on the idea of doing it to reverse my diabetes.

The criteria for recommending bariatric surgery revolves around Body Mass Index (BMI) which is a measure of your weight vs. your height. At my weight prior to my diagnosis, I might have been a candidate as I had a BMI of over 35 and I had a complication (hyperglycemia). While I wasn’t very happy with my body at the time, I hardly considered myself in a condition where the best option was to surgically alter myself and I’d never trusted the BMI, knowing that it would count a body builder who weighed the same as I did as being just as obese as my sedentary butt.

If you are at a point where diabetes and weight is a critical issue for you, if your weight is due to overeating, if you can’t find another way to lose weight and if you’re doctor recommends it is safe, I can see getting the surgery and the gastric condom being a viable alternative to having your stomach stapled to itself. But it seems that nature of the device offers a quick fix to a complex problem, perhaps a little too quick.

Link: Gastric ‘condoms’ could help obese avoid surgery.

There are parts of winter I like, when it’s cold and still and the whole world seems peaceful. There there are times when it warms up just to become wet. Even worse are when it become wet and bitingly cold.

This winter has had a lot of that last one.

Chilly weather leads to thoughts of how to get warm and very often those thoughts lead to comfort foods. The problem for me is that most comfort foods involve a lot of sugar or starch, like pot pies or pasta dishes. This doesn’t play well with my blood sugar.

There are options available, though. Three things that are warm and diabeties friendly:

• Oatmeal: Plain oatmeal has fiber and isn’t terrible calorie or carb wise. Flavorwise, it’s pretty boring, but makes for a good blank canvas and plays well with dried fruits and cinnamon .
• Vegatable Soup: While there is no one true vegetable soup recipe, the base concoction of a tomato-y broth plus assorted green, yellow and orange nibbles is a tried and true classic. It goes well with grilled cheese, if that’s acceptable to your diet, and it also allows for a lot customization. Add some beef chunks and you’ve got stew.
• Chili : Another high protein, low carb option. Also, the spices help with the whole feeling cold thing.

Warm drinks, like hot tea or coffee, are also good winter options as in addition to their benefits in upping your body tempature, recent studies have shown that just holding something warm will elevate your mood.

According to one article I read, people turn to carbs in winter because carbs boost the brain chemicals that tell you you’re feeling good, thus making gray and cloudy days seem less dreary. When you don’t really have the option to dive into the breads or potatoes, this doesn’t mean that food can’t be a comfort. It just means you need to work with it a little more.

Announcment:
After some thought, I’ve decided to stop trying to put up articles 5 days a week. Attempting to say that much about being newly diabetic has turned out to be a more ambitious goal that I’d first thought and as a result, I feel like some of my recent blog entries have suffered. So, beginning this week I’m going to regularly be posting on Teusday and Thursday. I may still be posting randomly at other times, but in order to put my thoughts forth more clearly I feel slowing down for the time being is the best option.

Thanks for reading and see you on Thursday.