GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #21: How To Happily Eat Summer – WITHOUT Your Glucose Hitting 600!

For the first time since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

If you want to read more, just click on the three articles below for great information about ways to have fun WHILE keeping your Type 2 in good standing.

First of all, let me tell you, I am NOT a Poster Old Man for smart Type 2 Diabetes living. Staying away from foods I love is often difficult, and I sometimes just give in and go to DQ anyway. But I haven’t given up entirely. We still try to eat right and avoid certain foods. Friends of our help to keep us on the “straight-and-narrow” by their own personal choices (BUT NOT BY PREACHING!) That’s what I try and do here – I try to share what things that work for me.

One example is exercising. I hate exercise. There, I said it.

HOWEVER, I love riding my bike. I’ve liked biking since my parents bought me a three-speed for a Confirmation gift. That started a habit that’s lasted over half a century. Of course, shortly after my parents got me the three-speed, I got a job and bought a REAL bike: my first “curly-handle ten speed”. I’ve been riding ever since. I even use my bike in the winter. A friend of mine lent me his indoor bike stand. For the past three winters I’ve spent about half an hour every other day pedaling away (in boredom), while waiting for Spring to come; or riding on the trails as long as could into Fall.

During the summer, I rotate five different (and hopefully finally add a sixth – two times!) trails. Their LENGTH isn’t as different as that two of them force me to climb a ramp over a busy highway.

At any rate, the three articles I reference below deal mostly with EATING over the summer months! Boiling down TWO of them (the other is Diabetic-Friendly recipes), give me this lists of things I should either CONTINUE doing or try starting.

 

If you use insulin, BEWARE: heat makes the insulin absorb into your skin faster; it can also be damaged by high temperatures; also, heat alters the accuracy of your glucose monitors -- and even the test strips. Just be aware of where and how you carry your "gear".

A) Try NOT to sit around at summer parties -- move around, chat with people, even volunteer to bring foods in and out, or bring cans of pop out.

B) Be aware of how fluid Summer-eating times can be! Lunch can easily slide to supper on a hot day, and the evening meal can show up after 10 pm! We don't have the luxury of a stable metabolism that can handle eating a box of Dunkin Donuts after midnight!

C) Don't load up on carbs and sugar after the sun goes down! You might be alarmed at your glucose readings when you check them first thing in the morning like I do!

D) Don't power load on carbs! (This is me reminding myself, I'm sure you have better control than I do!!!)

E) Sit down and eat a plateful rather than grazing the tables and bags of chips and dips and coolers and...well, you know what I mean! I'm going to try next week at my nephew's wedding: HALF the plate is veggies and meats; the other half can be carbs: buns, cakes, cookies, candies. Keep that balance! (I might try (I) as well...)

F) If possible, pick the grilled chicken breast rather than the grilled burger -- oh, and use half a bun instead of the whole thing -- in either case!

G) If you're eating with close family: ASK FOR OPTIONS! They love you (presumably) but as non-Type Twos, they don't THINK OF HAVING TO CHOOSE healthy options! They WANT you to be around to change diapers and go to concerts and basketball games!

H) DON'T SKIP MEALS BEFORE THE BIG BBQ!!!! I try not to do that anymore! Or if I do, I work extra hard to balance the "big meal" like the plate up in E.

I) Grab the nearest loved one you haven't seen for a while and take a survey of the SPREAD with them noting what's there, what's not there, and what you look forward to eating! Being AWARE of our eating is more important than just about ANYTHING we can do to remain healthy while being happy, too!

Lastly, bring a HEALTHY DISH you can share – scan the recipe website below for suggestions. Even the most sugar-addled, carbohydrate magnet young adult might be open to trying something new and tasty (make SURE you test the recipes before you bring them!) The majority won’t even notice if your deviled eggs have egg whites substituting for HALF the usual six yolks; mixed in low-fat mayo; and checking the mustard content – just skip adding the half cup of sawdust most people assume low-carb, low fat foods will taste like!

Lastly, have fun! Take the grandkids to the park at the end of the street; go for a walk about the block after the meal (better yet, BEFORE the meal!)

These are mostly easy things! I’m certainly going to deploy them in defending my body against the ravages of Type 2!

Source: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/cooking-for-people-with-diabetes/seasonal-cooking/summer-eating-and-diabetes,
Summer Type Two Dining: https://www.eatingwell.com/gallery/7968046/easy-summer-diabetes-friendly-dinners/#:~:text=Dinners%20with%20bright%20ingredients%20from,a%20diabetes%2Dfriendly%20eating%20pattern.
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #16: The ARTIFICIAL PANCREAS – Today for Type 1; Tomorrow for Type 2!

From the first moment I discovered I had been diagnosed with DIABETES, I joined a HUGE “club” that has been rapidly expanding since it stopped being a death sentence in the early 20th Century. Currently, there are about HALF A BILLION PEOPLE who have Type 2 Diabetes. For the past 3500 years – dating back to Ancient Egypt – people have suffered from diabetes. Well, I’m one of them now… Not one to shut up for any known reason, I added a section to this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting Diabetes research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: STARTING with a 2014 article, “Diabetes – Will it Ever be cured?”; I check up on the various therapies mentioned…Today: MORE advances on the artificial pancreas!  https://www.healthline.com/health-news/type-2-diabetes-an-artificial-pancreas-may-help-improve-blood-sugar-levels

While the system was originally developed to manage blood glucose levels in people with type 1 diabetes, new research suggests that fully closed-loop insulin therapy may help people with type 2 diabetes improve blood glucose levels without raising their risk of severe hypoglycemia, or dangerously low blood sugar.”

"Roughly 415 million people around the world have type 2 diabetes — and keeping their blood glucose levels within a specific range is critically important to reducing their risk of long-term diabetes complications.”

“Dr. Thomas Grace [Medical Director of the Blanchard Valley Diabetes Center in Findlay, Ohio] expects more fully closed-loop systems to become available in the future, including in the United States.”

Well, they’re here now. One such system was developed where I live: Minnesota.

“The Medtronic MiniMed 780G System is an automated insulin delivery system that helps people ages 7 and older manage their diabetes by detecting trends and tracking patterns in glucose levels through continuous monitoring, then using an insulin pump to automatically deliver insulin, and adjust the amount of insulin delivered, as needed.”

WOW! But…uh…what does “a hybrid closed loop system” MEAN????

“An insulin pump is a small, computerized device worn outside of the body that delivers insulin under the skin. A hybrid closed loop insulin pump attempts to mimic the body's natural communication loop by linking with a secondary device called a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, sensor and automatically adjusting some of the insulin delivered based on continually monitored blood sugar levels.”

My wife already uses a “continually monitored” glucose device. The system you probably seen most often, because it’s regularly advertised on TV, is the “FreeStyle Libre” (manufactured by Abbott (a pharmaceutical company)).

A needle attached to a small, plastic platform has a needle on one side. When applied, the needle is in the bloodstream. Using a synchronized cellphone app, you hold your phone over the platform, and it sends the sensor-derived blood glucose level to the app. You can do it whenever you want, and you eventually get a graph like this: 

https://www.usmeddirect.com/cdn/shop/products/FreeStyleLibre2_002_002_grande.png?v=1597075020

Linked to a blood monitor sensor, that is linked in with an insulin delivery system – hence it’s a closed loop. The person with the “artificial pancreas” doesn’t have to take their blood sugars, then inject insulin themselves. It’s done automatically.

Amazing. Even more amazing that “the first experimental artificial pancreas was developed in 1964.” From that first step to a viable artificial pancreas that was invented for people with Type 1 diabetes…and now applicable to people with Type 2 – all in sixty years!

YOU may be the next recipient of an ARTIFICIAL PANCREAS!

Links: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/type-2-diabetes-an-artificial-pancreas-may-help-improve-blood-sugar-levels , https://myacare.com/blog/artificial-pancreas-technology-for-diabetes-management-types-and-benefits, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/artificial-pancreas-device-systems-market-230200881.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADBAy9cdsnafVvSQuS0pjYfdIf-U4seLpKhN_HaLqwEmE_0I19d11FV250q3MVWSWqKoB-9VWDfxSQtxXYhRmVHjKDjbB_k8BKxOnSV24tVKvwmXQWy2Tkke_bDQTjrbTWj4mlX65TvZrYTt4LH4BhqfFREeFtEX0fNpMNDV2Bfo , https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/recently-approved-devices/minimed-780g-system-p160017s091 , https://www.niddk.nih.gov/news/archive/2017/story-discovery-artificial-pancreas-managing-type1-diabetes
Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #15: Diabetes-Damaged Cells REGENERATED To Produce INSULIN!

From the first moment I discovered I had been diagnosed with DIABETES, I joined a HUGE “club” that has been rapidly expanding since it stopped being a death sentence in the early 20th Century. Currently, there are about HALF A BILLION PEOPLE who have Type 2 Diabetes. For the past 3500 years – dating back to Ancient Egypt – people have suffered from diabetes. Well, I’m one of them now… Not one to shut up for any known reason, I added a section to this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting Diabetes research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: “Diabetics’ damaged cells regenerated to produce insulin”…

In a development that is straight out of a science fiction movie (if you DON’T know, I write science fiction. Once of my first stories was about a treatment for Alzheimer’s based on research that was current when the story was published 24 years ago. (Nothing has come of it yet, but world-wide, research into Alzheimer’s is growing more and more active.) If you’re interested, the story is reproduced on my website here: https://theworkandworksheetsofguystewart.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-pig-tale-by-guy-stewart-analog.html

This is another one of those VERY, VERY, VERY EARLY kinds of research directions. It’s something I’ve wondered about, and now I’m seeing that others – people who can actually DO something about it – are making strides.

The concept, as I noted above, has to do with regeneration damaged cells in the pancreas that either don’t produce enough insulin, produce it at the wrong time, or as in Type 1 diabetes, it stops producing ANY insulin.

In Type 1 diabetes, “Pancreatic beta-cells make, store, and release insulin. But, in Type 1, a person’s own immune system, instead of protecting the pancreas from disease, ATTACKS it, destroying these beta-cells over time, leading to a lifelong dependence on self-injected insulin or an external insulin pump in order to live.”

Type 2 diabetes, of course, is different. If we miss our pills or forget our Ozempic, we’re not going to die immediately. Type 1, which you probably know, IS that serious.

The research in this article is about REGROWING YOUR OWN CELLS back in the pancreas so that your own body starts to make the right amount of insulin and makes sure it gets to where it needs to go!

“Researchers at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, have brought us a step closer to making [regeneration] a reality, regenerating damaged pancreatic cells so they can produce insulin and functionally respond to blood glucose levels.” Remember – RIGHT NOW, this is ONLY for people who have Type 1 diabetes – the kids, like my friend Greg – whose pancreas stopped producing insulin when he was just a kid.”
SO, what is pancreatic regeneration? The CAUSE of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes is that something happens to the cells in the pancreas that MAKE insulin. In Type 1, the cells totally shut down. The (kid usually) gets NO insulin from the pancreas – before 1921 and the launching of an effort to cure diabetes, if you were diagnosed with diabetes, the doctor would shake your hand, and if you were an adult, they’d say, “I’m sorry, Guy. See to it that you get your affairs in order now. You may not have much time left on this good Earth.”

For kids? In 1921, they probably didn’t say anything to the kid. They just told the parents that their kid would be dying some time in the next year or so and to get ready for it. Of course, kids OFTEN died of things we don’t worry about anymore: “polio, measles, smallpox, whooping cough, diarrhea (yeah, you read that right – here. In the US. It’s still a deadly condition all over Africa, South America, and in any other country where they don’t have the medical resources we do…), as well as pneumonia, the flu, and tuberculosis…children under 5 accounted for 40 percent of all deaths from these infections.”

So here was the conclusion of the study linked below: “Recent insights have shown that pancreatic cells establish continuous and close crosstalk by sharing regulatory pathways, molecules and signals, suggesting that the exocrine and endocrine organs cannot be considered separately. In this scenario, looking at the overall pancreas rather than focusing on a single cell type may be a successful choice to finding the right path to regenerate β-cells, and a cure for type 2 diabetes.”

English? This: “The healthy cells in your pancreas constant and close communication with each other. They don’t ‘talk’ with tiny cell mouths – they use chemicals that they make to ‘tell’ other cells what’s going on in the pancreas. For some time, scientists believed that the outer parts of the pancreas and the inner parts were totally separate. But recent research suggests that the pancreas ONLY HAS ONE SYSTEM.” This study has started to look at how the entire pancreas works together – and they theorize that something has gone wrong with how the cells communicate with each other.”

EVERYTHING in your body communicates. There are several kinds of muscles in your heart that work together to keep it pumping. The study theorizes that if we could figure out what’s going wrong with the cell communication, we could devise a way to correct that – and the pancreas would begin to make the right amount of insulin again – either TOTALLY like in Type 1; or PARTIALLY like in my Type 2! In this study, “…researchers…looked at the ability of two drugs normally used to treat rare forms of cancer. They wanted to measure how much the drug would ‘turn the pancreas cells back on, healing what had been damaged.’ After 48 hours of stimulation with the drugs, the reprogrammed cells produced and secreted insulin at the right time.”

So…there’s HOPE here! Not tomorrow; not next year; but they’ve made a breakthrough – and they know WHAT to do now.

Links: https://newatlas.com/medical/regenerate-pancreatic-beta-cells-insulin-type-1-diabetes/;

article quoted above (August 2023) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10331309/
Youtube showing the procedure above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKHjt4rwg4

Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg

GGTA, POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: TYPE 2 DIABETES #20: From “Obese” To A Beast…The Myth of Ozempic Curing FATNESS

For the first time since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

America is the land of “do it for me, I don’t feel like it”.

The “Ozempic Crisis” is an horrific case to point.

“You’re just being mean!!!!!!!” you might wail. I’d say that there are a couple other people beside me that feel the same way. Just GOOGLE, “Lazy Fat People Driving Ozempic Crisis”, or if you want to spare the feelings of lazy fat people, you can GOOGLE, “Ozempic Crisis”.

Before you try to GOOGLE me to discover how unfair I’m being – and that as a skinny person, I couldn’t POSSIBLY understand how awful being overweight is and how WONDERFUL the “new diet drug…I mean…the new Type 2 diabetes drug treatment” is. I’ll just say right here, I AM a lazy fat person looking for ANY excuse to try something that will let me eat a dozen chocolate eclairs, or old-fashioned glazed donuts, or a FAMILY SIZE package of Oreo cookies, or two dozen breadsticks at OLIVE GARDEN…let me say it again:

“I’m a lazy fat people.” I would just as soon lay around the house eating all day long (“...and I mean lay AROUND the house!”) than cut my donut intake from a dozen to half-a-dozen; or my Two Big Macs and two large orders of fries and a Coke; to ONE Big Mac, a medium fry, and a DIET Coke…If I could eat whatever I want to, whenever I want to, and then take a shot that would make me lose weight instead of gain weight – I’d do it in a split second!

If Type 2 diabetics suffered because the Ozempic supply has dwindled, making it hard to get – so? You shriek, “They’re using Ozempic and losing weight just because they’ve been eating as much as I have and have some kind of fake disease! I mean, it’s not like they’re gonna DIE just because they can’t take their Ozempic!!! Why should they just get to take a shot and lose weight and people used to tell me that I CAN'T?”

Doctors who have prescribed and still prescribe Ozempic for weight loss are the FIRST LINE of people who sparked the rush on the drug. But the rest is on US. Friends told friends who asked their doctors…then asked again…then begged them…then WEPT AND BEGGED THEM SOME MORE…

Until there’s not enough Ozempic – clinically known as semaglutide – it was originally prescribed to Type 2 diabetics alone.

The word got out (not factual words, just THE EDITED WORD) Of course, as with ALL miraculous drugs, there are NO SIDE-EFFECTS! It’s a true miracle!

Hmmm…as with nearly all miracles, when you look closely you discover that it’s not a miracle at all, but equal parts selective hearing/seeing and blind stubbornness.

The problems with semaglutide were always there: “Possible side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal pain, headache, fatigue, indigestion/heartburn, dizziness, abdominal distension, belching, hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) in people with type 2 diabetes, flatulence, gastroenteritis, and acid reflux. It can also cause pancreatitis, gastroparesis, and bowel obstruction.” Those were all discovered in the original trials.

Despite the warning signs, lazy fat people like me continued to beg their doctors to give them OZEMPIC THE WONDER DRUG!!!!! And the doctors did.

So, why do people who have a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes deserve to have semaglutide?

Because Type 2 diabetes is a disease; fatness is a choice – or more accurately, a long series of bad choices. Admit it – you know lots of fat people whose doctors have NOT detected Type 2 diabetes in them. They’re perfectly NOT SICK, even though they weight 700 pounds.

“Say, WHAT!?!?!?!?!”

Yep. Type 2 diabetes is an illness NOT caused by being a sugar pig when you were 20 years old. It’s NOT caused by me eating too many candy bars. I know, that’s not what YOU were told!!!! The weird thing is, YOU WERE TOLD WRONG.

Here’s the SCIENCE definition of Type 2 diabetes: “Type 2 diabetes happens because of a problem in the way the body regulates and uses sugar as a fuel. This long-term condition results in too much sugar circulating in the blood. Eventually, these high blood sugar levels can lead to disorders of the heart, veins, and arteries; trouble with the nerves; and the body’s ability to fight disease.” [Remember COVID-19? “Diabetes (is) significantly associated with the death of COVID-19 patients in all of the published…analyses. Therefore, COVID-19 patients with diabetes…need much more monitoring to reduce deaths.”]

“In type 2 diabetes, there are two big problems. The pancreas does not produce enough insulin AND cells respond poorly to insulin and take in less sugar. There's no cure for type 2 diabetes. Losing weight, eating well and exercising can help manage the disease. If diet and exercise aren't enough to control blood sugar, diabetes medications or insulin therapy may be recommended.”

So…people with Type 2 diabetes – which is as much a disease as COVID19 actually NEED semaglutide TO SURVIVE. (Remember that pandemic thing? No? Just because you don’t remember it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen! Another example is that just because you never heard Taylor Swift back in 2006, doesn’t mean she isn’t a SUPERSTAR today.) 

You and me being fat slobs doesn’t mean we need to get a prescription to inject away our fat because we’re too lazy to exercise and force our hand down from stuffing our sixteenth chocolate donut into our mouth so we can scurry into the bathroom and shoot ourselves up with semaglutide to get skinny. Type 2 diabetes is a disease that a person's food choices didn't CAUSE. It's a disease.

Besides, the articles below are pretty much in agreement – Ozempic won’t change our lives. It’ll lead right back to where every other diet has led us all along: saying no to eating that second dozen donuts in the past three days and not looking for a magic sure for our self-indulgence.

Source: https://time.com/6332910/ozempic-americas-obesity-crisis/
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/12/1229920739/weight-loss-drugs-ozempic-arent-magic-bullet-lifestyle-changes-lasting-health
https://fortune.com/well/2024/03/01/ozempic-weight-loss-drugs-not-solution-obesity-who-world-health/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWEVeVypkyI
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/opinion/ozempic-obesity-fat-diabetes.html
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/a-diabetes-drug-is-being-used-for-easy-thinness-is-it-as-magical-as-it-seems-20230405-p5cyfs.html
https://www.everydayhealth.com/type-2-diabetes/ozempic-shortage-how-a-weight-loss-fad-has-slashed-access/
Other sources: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-2-diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc-20351193
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10191721/

Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #14: Metformin + MORE Meds? – Almost Half of Us REFUSE...Why?

From the first moment I discovered I had been diagnosed with DIABETES, I joined a HUGE “club” that has been rapidly expanding since it stopped being a death sentence in the early 20th Century. Currently, there are about HALF A BILLION PEOPLE who have Type 2 Diabetes. For the past 3500 years – dating back to Ancient Egypt – people have suffered from diabetes. Well, I’m one of them now… Not one to shut up for any known reason, I added a section to this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting Diabetes research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: People Refuse to Take More Metformin, or Refuse to Follow the Prescription…HUH???

Sometimes someone with Type 2 Diabetes can’t get their blood sugars under control with exercise, diet, and the maximum 4-Metformin-pills-a-day prescription. Barring the person who refuses to exercise and change their ANYTHING that they do (a former friend of mine passed away recently because they flat out refused to take care of themselves); doctors sometimes have to add a “second-line” drug to help manage blood sugars. Prescribing insulin; Saxenda or Victoza; Januvia or TreviaMet; or Jardiance is usual depending on the individual’s diabetes peculiarities.

A new Northwestern Medicine study, however, has shown that USING the prescribed what are called second-line drugs that may be important in managing blood sugars, “can be hit or miss”.

Let’s review why it’s important for someone (like ME!) who’s been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, to control my blood sugar (or glucose levels).

I’m gonna lift this directly from “Keeping your blood sugar at or near your goal level helps decrease the risk of complications that can affect the eyes, kidneys, and nerves. Keeping your blood pressure and cholesterol levels under control helps reduce your risk of heart disease, which is a common complication of type 2 diabetes. Many factors affect how well a person's diabetes is controlled. You can reduce your risk of complications by following your health care provider's guidance around diet, exercise, blood sugar monitoring, and medication regimens. Dietary changes are typically focused on eating nutritious foods and getting to (and maintaining) a healthy weight. If you take insulin, you may also need to be consistent about what you eat and when…”

But if the FIRST line of exercise, diet, and drugs DOESN’T work – you need a second if you want to continue to live a reasonably healthy life. Apparently some people either have to actually make changes or take more medications. Admittedly, “while the scientists did not have data on reasons why patients discontinued treatment…it may have been due to side effects like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea -- which have been observed in patients who take these medications for diabetes control and for weight loss…”

“The study of more than 82,000 patients between 2014 and 2017 found that after a year of their first set of meds, (FIFTY THOUSAND OF THEM) either discontinued their medication, switched to a different medication class, or intensified their treatment. Stopping your meds is bad. It is common in all five types of medications.”

WHY???? It’s not like people are “alone” in their diagnosis: “In total, half of all adults and a quarter of teenagers have diabetes or pre-diabetes.”

It’s not like we don’t KNOW what ignoring our Type 2 diabetes will do: “…heart attacks, amputations, blindness, kidney disease, double the risk of premature death, “diabetes distress”, “dips in energy, foggy thinking and depression, and a sense of isolation”, and as a matter of history, “Roughly 40% of people who died early in the pandemic had Type 2 diabetes, a rate four times higher than people without the disease.”

So, science KNOWS how to treat it – why do we prefer to IGNORE it?

There ARE, absolutely things in the world around us that drag us into a lifestyle that can lead to Type 2 diabetes – fast food, the “drive everywhere” of American lifestyles, for me it was plain old laziness. “There’s no question personal responsibility plays a role in fighting diabetes…They’ve reduced their dependence on daily medication and hope to have saved themselves the horrors of more amputations, blindness and dialysis. They’ve extended their lives and improved the quality of that time. But like many medical problems, the challenges of diabetes go well beyond individual responsibility and blame…even in Colorado, where hiking trails and gorgeous views abound – economic and other disparities make it easier for some people to avoid diabetes than others.”

Ultimately, it lies with ME to change. Read the USA Today article – it’s long, but it also ends this way: “…he clings to his faith and the positive attitude he has long used to cheer up himself and others. These are his secret weapons against diabetes and everything else life throws his way. ‘I try to put a smile on other people's faces,” he said. “It keeps my day going.’”

Links: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/12/231212112312.htm; https://www.uptodate.com/contents/type-2-diabetes-and-diet-beyond-the-basics/print#:~:text=Keeping%20your%20blood%20sugar%20at,complication%20of%20type%202%20diabetes. ; https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/10/01/type-2-diabetes-prevention-progress/70768126007/ Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #19: Exercise LOWERS Blood Sugars!!!!

For the first time since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

OK, FACT is that I very much DISLIKE exercise. Really HATE IT, actually! But when someone says, “I exercise!”, this is what my mind conjures:

https://image1.masterfile.com/getImage/700-02798065em-man-on-treadmill-stock-photo.jpg

It says to me, “BORING! ENDLESS! STUPID!”

One or two of you know what I mean.

The other side of me says, “But my blood sugars and blood pressure go down when I exercise!” You know, the “My doctor says that I should exercise to lower my blood sugars and blood pressures and lose some weight…” lectures.

This is what my mind conjures: 

https://media.gettyimages.com/id/74878707/photo/mature-doctor-with-stethoscope-portrait.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=yEvDUO9q1xD8QdX_6ZccXVKoCBidszgMc2a_leYmBr8=

One or two of you might know what I mean.

So, I set out to figure out what I can do to exercise – that isn’t the first image and WON’T trigger the second image.

From the day I got a three-speed bike for a Confirmation gift when I turned fifteen – to three or four years after we moved into our new house, I’ve been a biker.

I DON’T DO RACING! (Though I started doing biking for fund raising. My first “bike-a-thon” was for the March of Dimes when I was sixteen…(of course, I’d ditched the three-speed my parents got me and bought a REAL ten-speed!) 

I had no idea how far the ride was THEN, but I calculated it recently and found that with only regular biking (to work and home again) plus my age (16), I’d biked 49 miles with little to no effort.

That was the beginning. About six years ago, I picked up biking again. It started with my janky ten-speed bike. Then the school district I work for offered a perk: they’d give me $600 toward ANY health thing I wanted! Gym membership! Diet program! Treadmill! Home gymnasium! Personal trainer! Nice bike…

Hmmm…so, $600 in hand, I bought a $1000 bicycle from Trailhead Cycling in Champlin, MN and only paid $400. A basic Giant, it was strong, sturdy, and I even splurged and bought the Old Man Bicycle Seat so my butt wouldn’t go numb any more. I DON'T have biking shorts or a biking outfit or biking shirt or any of that other crap. I wear a helmet and shorts and tennis shoes and a T-shirt. I absolutely REFUSED to get dolled up to ride my bike and get sweaty!

And then I started biking. Initially, I rode a short loop – end of the block, around and home. *whew* It had been a LONG time since I’d made any serious effort at riding. Getting used to the new bike. (Put the old 10-speed on the curb and it was carted away for scrap (I suppose)…) I rode three miles around the nearby marsh. Did that for a few weeks, building up endurance only on weekends. Worked up to five miles, maybe ten on the weekends.

My teen-year love of biking reignited! I wasn’t doing it to “get healthy!” or “lose weight!” or even…“cause it’s good for you!” I was biking because I LIKED IT! All that other crap was beside the point. I LIKED BIKING – I wasn’t “exercising”…I was doing something I’d loved since that first 3-speed when I was fifteen.

From there, I kept going. I rode all summer, then asked my son to ride with me on the Grand Round Scenic Bikeway – it was a fifty-one mile ride around Minneapolis and St. Paul, sometimes cutting through the cities down the street in a designated Bike Lane. Other times riding along the Mississippi and pulling up behind Fort Snelling…then finishing up weaving around Minneapolis’ famous Lakes: Bde Mka Ska, Harriet, and others I don’t even remember. We signed up for a couple of fund raisers – breast cancer; MS; Diabetes…

And by then, I was hooked. But I wasn’t “exercising”. I was ENJOYING MYSELF! That was the key for me – exercising? (spit on the ground) – was a total NON-motivator for me. So, what is it that YOU LIKE TO DO? I’m sorry, it does require MOVING. But some moving is better than NO moving. So find that moving thing you like and keep doing it, setting little, teeny goals for yourself. I’ll share more next time around about what’s happened in the decade since I was riding in those fund raisers…

So MOVE! Here's a link to our own Minnesota Health giant that promotes this very thing! The Mayo Clinic -- https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/topics/move-more

Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #13: Special Body Fat IMPROVES Glucose' Power and LOWERS Insulin Resistance!

From the first moment I discovered I had been diagnosed with DIABETES, I joined a HUGE “club” that has been rapidly expanding since it stopped being a death sentence in the early 20th Century. Currently, there are about HALF A BILLION PEOPLE who have Type 2 Diabetes. For the past 3500 years – dating back to Ancient Egypt – people have suffered from diabetes. Well, I’m one of them now… Not one to shut up for any known reason, I added a section to this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting Diabetes research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: White Fat, Brown Fat, and Beige Fat…how increasing BEIGE fat might fight Type 2 Diabetes.

This was a fascinating read for me, and while I did NOT read the MOST technical article, I did read much of the middle on and all of the Science Daily article.

I’m going to start with four definitions and then how they relate to Type 2 diabetes (T2d from now on!)

Fat (from Wikipedia): “Fat is one of the three main types of macronutrients (giant nutrients) – carbs, proteins, and fats. Fats are found in many foods and are made of giant molecules called lipids. SOME of these are important because the body can’t make them.

White Fat: Used to store energy that runs EVERYTHING in your body: muscles, blood, bones – everything that makes you alive. When your body releases insulin from the pancreas, white fat cells' insulin receptors cause the fat molecules to break into smaller parts called “fatty acids” The fatty acids are taken up by muscle and cardiac tissue as a fuel source, and glycerol is taken up by the liver for gluconeogenesis (…the formation of glycogen, the primary carbohydrate stored in the liver and muscle cells of animals, from glucose.”) White fat also insulates your body, helping to maintain body temperature.

Brown Fat: Originating with muscle cells, it’s found in large deposits throughout the body. It’s especially abundant in newborns and in hibernating mammals present and active in adult humans. Its main job is to regulate the body’s heat by shivering muscle. It also makes heat by non-shivering by breaking down the fat directly so it generates heat. The amount found in the body decreases as humans age. In contrast to white fat cells, which contain a single lipid droplet, brown fat cells contain numerous smaller droplets and a much higher number mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell). Brown fat also contains more capillaries than white fat. These supply the tissue with oxygen and nutrients and distribute the produced heat throughout the body.

Beige Fat: “Cold temperatures induce the generation of beige fat cells. There appears to be a “cooperation network” between the beige fat cells and an immune cell activation. Future investigation into how these cellular communication networks change with age could be exploited to inform new strategies against “age-associated fat mass expansion” (old people getting FAT) and “metabolic decline” (old people don’t burn fat off as fast as kids do!)”

The studies want to find out how white, brown, and beige fat interact with T2d.

According to classical view, the main function of white fat is to store excess energy in the form of triglycerides. Brown fat is a thermogenic tissue that’s important in maintaining the core body temperature. White fat cells can TURN INTO these beige fat cells, becoming more like the ‘better for you’ brown. In other words, the beige fat cells adipocytes ACT like brown fat under the stimulations of exercise, cold exposure and other factors. This phenomenon is also called the ‘browning of white fat’.

So – why should us T2ds CARE???

This “browning” of white fat into beige fat speeds up the intake of glucose AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL: reduces the insulin secretion requirement needed to convert glucose to stored sugar and then the conversion back again. This MAY be the foundation of a new strategy to improve glucose metabolism and lower insulin resistance.

Link: This is from the magazine ADIPOCYTE in the November 2021 issue
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7801117/; and an article between THESE two: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124720305477?via%3Dihub

(This is a link to the VERY DENSE article in a journal called NATURE COMMUNICATIONS The article was submitted to the journal in 2021 and not published until April of last year: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37386-z.epdf?sharing_token=lqv3kPGNLIHJxQyZvxBFs9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MJeC-m42OPBaujM1-RVqh1IumycYyPQVgtxSSqlK-ihIren53WkaqtT7UoLCbhBbnWuR6qgyVr1NsESE9CHNNIlt7YGfxeLfFuLCeEMIFX67DDCRq06fnMka3VKoSWIyo%3D

Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg