Sugar Turned On Me

A friend of mine recently was told that she might be among the diabetic recently.  Knowing of my still less than a year old diagnosis, she called me and asked for tips. The call was educational, but I think more for me than for her.

My friend had already started changing her diet, eating better and working on carbs. The numbers that alarmed her doctor were borderline, not very different from what mine were like on the day my doctor got worried. So outside of pointing out that it’s not the end of the world, what was there to say?

Sadly, not a lot. I recommended a product or two that I like, reminded her to stay up beat. Thankfully, she had a handle on the situation to begin with, diabetes running in her family.

The things I was reminded of in that phone call:

• I’m am not the authority of all things related to diabetes.
• You can already be changing your lifestyle and still have blood sugar issues.
• …and that doesn’t mean you’ve failed.
•  Sometimes, solidarity is about all you can offer someone going through a bad time.

The good news is that she still has her A1C results coming, so there’s a possibility she’s not looking at diagnosis of diabetes even if she is kind of having a “come to Jesus” moment about her diet. She’s also got a great set of friends (not just me) and a good family at home to help her deal with whatever the doctor tells her.

As for me, I’m a little sad that after a year I didn’t have more to say to her (I should have this diabetes thing down, right?). But on the other hand, knowing that your knowledge isn’t complete is part of a path towards becoming wiser. And that’s something I’m pretty sure I can always do.

I work in a three story building. Nothing enormous as architecture goes, but enough to have an elevator in it. Often, that elevator prevents a challenge. And I’m not talking about the inordinate number of times it’s been down for repairs.

You see, right next to elevator is a door. That door leads to a set of stairs. The stairs, as they often do, lead up to my floor.

I don’t think about the stairs when I’m in a hurry as somewhere in my 21st century conditioning I equate “automated” with “fast”. But there are times that I think of them, often on rainy days. On rainy days, I can’t go for my lunchtime walk outside. But I’ve got my stairs.

The Stairmaster is a piece of gym equipment that sells for a fair bit of cash and demonstrates what we all pretty much had figured out: climbing stairs is exercise. The machine version of stairs has some advantages over regular stairs (less of a chance of falling, the ability to vary the depth of the step) but one of the best arguments against accquiring one or joining a gym just to use it is that you can get the same experience by just finding a nearby set of non-mechanical stairs and climbing them.

Back to rainy days.

When it rains, somewhere in the whiney-crybaby-I-don’t-wanna* part of my brain I figure I don’t have a means to exercise. But as there is a perfectly reasonable set of stairs in my building, I have to accept that I do have the means and bloody well should get off my butt and use them.

The moral of this tale is that there’s almost always a way to exercise, an environment that you can set yourself to task in even on days when you think you can’t.

And with that, I’m going to go stop talking about exercise and go do it.

*I can’t claim authorship of this adjective phrase. Thank you Ms. Alder.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

From time to time, I need to give credit where credit is due and to let people know where I misspoke. This is one of those times.

Error the First:

In discussing Disney pulling the Hannah Montana diabetes episode , I speculated that they pulled it over not wanting to offend their sponsors as I found it more likely than they were being responsible. Turns out I should have given them more credit. One of the people who read the post (thanks, AC) advised me that the episode was pulled because:

1. Saying that Type 1 diabetics could not have sugar at all, when they can with appropriate care and doses of meds.
2.  Misrepresented Type 1 Diabetes as being caused by too much sugar, when it’s a condition that develops at birth.
3. Called the diabetic character “sugar boy” which is kinda a jerk move.
4. Also, never showing the kid take his blood sugar or take insulin or referencing that he might, which kind of cut down on the educational value of the storyline.

So my apologies to the House of the Mouse for doubting them. You can call of the assassins dressed like Goofy now.

Error the second:

When describing the effects of High Fructose Corn Syrup, I said that sucrose was processed by every cell in the body. I got my sugars wrong: glucose is processed by every cell in the body .

Fructose, however, is still only processed by the liver. So while I got my facts wrong, it wasn’t about the part I was giving as a warning.

Though of a note, there’s apparently some concern of mercury levels in high fructose corn syrup due to a recent study. So if you needed another reason to shun the stuff, congratulations, you got one.

Thanks again for reading. New information to follow soon.