Sugar Turned On Me

I live in Virginia and the weather here, as of the end of March, is still pretty chilly. Admittedly, it changes every five minutes, so by the time I’m finished writing this post, it’s likely to be different than when I began. But on the plus side, it will be warm soon. That means I can take lunchtime walks again.

Walking has been my main form of  exercise since I was diagnosed. The best opportunity I have is mid-day, as my time at home has ever increasingly become filled with more obligations (also a reason my blogging has been a bit slack of late). The cold weather made that less practical and on some days it would have been masochistic. So, looking at my tummy and the bit of fluff I gained over the winter, I’m looking forward to getting back on the road with some regularity.

Just in time for my walks, research has shown that there’s an optimum speed for walking, about one hundred steps per minute .  That translates out to 5 steps every 3 seconds, which is a pretty easy, if brisk, pace for me. The goal is to elevate the heart rate and keep it elevated for a short time.

My town’s every changing weather patterns are bringing us rain for the next couple of days, but after that, I’ve got a short stretch of road and some time with my thoughts coming.

So, what are you doing for exercise these days?

Not to sound like a hypochondriac, but I worry when I feel okay. It’s not that I enjoy not feeling well, it’s just that when one is ailing, the things you need to do are clear: drink fluids, take medicines, etc. You have definable symptoms and ways to deal with those symptoms.

When I’m feeling okay, however, it’s much easier to ignore my health altogether. If nothing feels tight, I don’t feel the need to stretch. If I don’t feel thirsty, I lose track of how much water I am or am not drinking. If I don’t feel hungry or sluggish, I forget to check my blood sugar.

In short, being healthy sometimes is unhealthy for me.

And then there’s the fact that one can get comfortable with a symptom to the point of ignoring it. If my blood sugar is a few points off, I don’t mind. So when it’s been 106 or 107 for a few days and tell myself “that’s not too bad”, it makes me less cautious if my blood sugar goes a few points higher.

When your car is running well, that’s the time to keep up with basic maintenance. When your house is in order, that’s the time to try extra hard to keep things clean. And when I’m feeling well, that’s the time to be more careful about staying that way but unfortunately, it’s not always easy to see that.

This doesn’t mean I won’t try, because when I feel well, I may be uneasy but when I feel lousy…  I feel lousy.

High Fructose Corn Syrup, one of my favorite punching bags, has shown up again in a new study that connects the consumption of fructose, a gene called PGC-1 and insulin resistance.

As I’ve ranted before, HFCS is in everything and hard to avoid. It is a liquid sweetener that is easier to transport and use than granulated sugar and is used for its cost effectiveness. It’s also been linked with liver disease and the obesity epidemic, though not conclusively.

This recent study done by Dr. Gerald Schuman of the Yale College of Medicine dealt with the function of a gene called PGC-1 which in conjunction with another gene can trigger fat production by the liver.  Rats in the test were given a hight fructose diet with PGC-1 inhibited. These rats failed to develop insulin resistance, a condition that one would expect in rats consuming tons of fructose and also one of the symptoms of Type 2 diabetes.

The ramfications of this study are too far over the horizon to say with certainty, but if the results continue to prove true, then a missing link into HFCS and the rash of Type 2 Diabetes we’re seeing these days may no longer be missing.

Of a side note, Pepsi is getting ready to release sodas with real sugar again. Appears business is starting to listen to the demand for non HFCS sweetend products.

A friend of mine and I were discussing the Mega Millions lottery. I play pretty regularly, though I admit my chances are quite slim. She pointed out that the difference between the chances to win the lottery jackpot ( 1 in 175 million) are statistically no different from 0.

I thought about this because I understood where she’s coming from, I think. When doing scientific statistical analysis, very small numbers and zero are pretty much the same thing. Let’s say you’re testing a vaccine. Out of 10 million people, only one person seems to get better because of it. From the standpoint of a researcher, that’s the same as saying no one did; a statisically significant number did not appear. Flukes don’t count.

But if you’re that one guy, the chances are what doesn’t matter. Same as winning the lottery. Same as becoming diabetic.

According to the American Diabetes Association website , 8% of Americans have diabetes. 90-95% of those cases are Type 2 diabetes, the kind you can accquire.  So that means if you’re an American and you’re in a room with 100 people, statistically it’s probably that one of them has Type 1 diabetes and seven have Type 2.

For most bets, a mere 7% chance of negative consequences is pretty good. For your life, especially if it’s voluntary, not so much.

What this means is that your chances of getting diabetes are non trivial. There are factors that raise it or lower it, like diet or exercise, but nothing that should make you completely discount it. Get checked out with your doctor regularly. Know how much sugar and carbs are in your diet. Exercise.

Because eventually, someone is going to pick a number seven or lower out of 100. Try to make sure it’s not you.