GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #34: Is Ozempic FOREVER???

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!

I’ve been taking Ozempic to manage my TYPE 2 DIABETES BLOOD SUGAR. Some people have said, “YOU’RE SO LUCKY!!! You don’t have to worry about what you eat anymore!”

Reality, as usual, is just as much of a punch in the face as it can be about everything else: “‘This isn’t a magic bullet or pill,’ said Edward Matias, 45, a Connecticut resident who works in IT. ‘It’s not the fountain of youth. It takes work and commitment. If people are asking for this med because they want to lose weight and think they can eat anything at all, they’re in for a rude awakening.’”

I started taking Ozempic a year or so ago when my A1c kept climbing until it hit 8.2. It SHOULD be less than 6.1, so I had moved from “Hmmm…” to dangerous.

What’s it mean and why’s it important? First thing I found out it’s an average blood sugar level over the past two to three months. It’s figured out by determining how much of the hemoglobin (which hauls oxygen in your blood) is being screwed up by TOO MUCH sugar. The A1c is a measurement of how badly the hemoglobin is coated with sugar. The more the sugar coats the oxygen, the LESS oxygen your blood carries…the less energy you have. If your energy level drops too far, you die.

Pretty simple, huh?

So, Ozempic works by prodding the pancreas to release insulin to get the sugar to your muscles rather than storing it as fat and lowers glucose production in the liver, improving blood sugar control. For weight loss, it acts on the brain to reduce hunger and slows stomach emptying, which helps me feel full longer so I eat less, leading to weight loss. So, I NEED it to lower the sugar floating around in my blood – and I lose a few pounds on the side.

Who cares if there’s too much free sugar floating around my blood? Well, remember when you were a little kid and ate an entire box of your FAVORITE sugar0coated breakfast cereal WITH NO MILK? Sick to your stomach? Your head spinning, ears ringing.

Mom probably muttered, “If you do that again, you’re probably going into a sugar coma!” We all knew what a coma was – we’d been watching MASH or Marcus Welby, MD, or whatever other hospital soap opera Dad was watching while he was typing up his reports. It’s when someone is alive but pretty much looks dead.

It wasn’t a good thing. That’s what happens when your body can’t even control the amount of sugar (GLUCOSE, not like…table sugar!) in your bloodstream. Besides feeling crappy, it also does a number of your internal organs. You can be really thirsty or hungry; frequent peeing, headaches, blurred vision, constantly feeling worn out, (weirdly) pre-diabetics can experience weight loss, vaginal yeast, worse than normal infections, and infections ON your skin, and finally, you heal much slower from cuts, and cuts can turn into oozing sores. That’s only the beginning, diabetes can become MORE serious maybe even drifting into something called ketoacidosis: your blood to become acidic. DKA can also affect people who have undiagnosed Type 1 diabetes like vomiting, dehydration, abdominal pain, labored breathing or hyperventilation, rapid heartbeat, confusion and disorientation, and you can pass out.

LONG term: liver failure, kidney failure, vision failure, nerve damage, paralysis of your STOMACH!!!, heart disease, and stroke.

Continuing to take Ozempic, Mounjarno, and Wegovy are just brand names of semaglutide – which you can’t get as a generic yet. But maybe someday.

Because as far as I can tell, I’ll be taking this stuff until I die…

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/ozempic-what-its-like-to-take-for-years-rcna93921 

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

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #31: A VERY Brief History of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes and What They Mean To Me, Today, Now

YES: THIS IS A REAL, HEALTHY PANCREAS...

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: Past, Present, and the Future of Diabetes and HOW it affects me...Treatment – in fact the very existence of Type 2 diabetes is NOT expected to vanish any time soon – of Type 2 are not going to disappear any time soon.

Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes have similar names, but their causes, development, and treatment approaches are WILDLY different. “We don’t know when diabetes was first discovered but it was mentioned in Egyptian medical papyri dating back to 1500 BCE. These ancient documents describe a malady characterized by frequent urination, a symptom that is now associated with diabetes mellitus. However, the term ‘diabetes’ itself did not exist until around 250 BCE, when a Greek physician, Apollonius of Memphis, coined it.”

Type 1 diabetes wasn’t treatable. In the olden days, people DIED FROM IT. (In these days people DIE FROM IT as well…) “Canadian doctor Banting and his assistant Best discovered how to treat Type 1. Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy, became the first patient to receive an insulin injection, significantly improving his health. Banting and Macleod won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1923 for their important discovery.” Scientists eventually discovered that the cause of Type 1 diabetes comes from a Human body attacking itself. “Type 1 is a condition that starts in childhood. It happens when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys cells in the pancreas that make insulin.” It was this form of diabetes that my best male friend at the time, who was best man in our wedding, died a truly ugly death in direct result (one might even say direct DEFIANCE) of his Type 1 diagnosis…

My Type 2 is treatable. In fact, I just got a shipment of a brand-name semaglutide an hour or so ago…but what it comes down to is this. My best man had NO CHOICE in developing Type 1 diabetes. Unlike HIM, “Type 2 diabetes is largely a disease of lifestyle and usually develops later in life. Type 2 diabetes was first described in the 1930s, although its history is not as well-documented as Type 1 diabetes. It was recognized as a distinct condition, different from Type 1 diabetes, that generally affected adults and wasn’t dependent on insulin. The disease likely existed long before but was not distinguished from other forms of diabetes.”

They start differently and are treated differently…but could they be CURED the same way?

The key is an organ in your belly called a really WEIRD looking thing called a pancreas.

What IS this thing? Something oogy. Gag-inducing. Ugly. (You probably noticed it when you followed my link…)

But so important that last year, treating the main malady of this tiny organ cost the world over a trillion dollars. Yes, that’s right: treating everyone who had diabetes (Type 1 and 2 together) in 2024 cost $1,000,000,000,000. https://www.statista.com/statistics/241831/health-care-costs-due-to-diabetes-worldwide-by-region/#:~:text=Health%20care%20expenditure%20due%20to,433%20thousand%20diabetes%2Drelated%20deaths.

The emotional cost is far beyond that. In 2024, diabetes, both type 1 and type 2, was responsible for 3.4 million deaths globally; at least one person loved every one of those people who died. This equates to one death every nine seconds. The Western Pacific region had the highest number of diabetes-related deaths, with approximately 1.2 million.” https://diabetesatlas.org/#:~:text=to%20tackle%20it.-,589%20million%20adults,3

This is serious stuff people. VERY serious. And I am one of a very small group of people who can afford to treat something I brought on myself (with a little help from my genetics…) But I DO have resources…

I’ve probably depressed you by now, so I’ll stop for here. But I’m not done. One last thing – I’m not pointing a finger or making accusations at YOU: I’m reflecting on the choices I MADE MYSELF. You can make your own choices…up to you.

And while I’m only RESPONSIBLE to myself, my choices affect the lives of many other people…and so do yours…

Links: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5278808/ 

Image: https://diabeticinfobiology.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/3/7/25377896/6064508.jpg?601

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #33: Type 2 Diabetes & Alzheimer’s

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!

Over the years (14 of them, actually…), I’ve written on breast cancer (my wife was diagnosed with it in 2011); Alzheimer’s (my dad was diagnosed in 2016) and finally Type 2 diabetes when I was diagnosed in October of 2022.

Well, my nightmare is coming true: “The relationship between diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) has increasingly been recognized.” The paper, “Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease” (published in JOURNAL OF DIABETES, 2025 May 19, see Source: below) concludes:

“There is, then, a strong connection between diabetes and AD, reflecting underlying insulin resistance leading to [Aβ accumulation and tau hyperphosphorylation] (colloquially known as plaques and tangle). Appropriately powered clinical trials of GLP‐1 RAs and SGLT2 inhibitors, as well as of further potential therapies, are needed to determine effective strategies for prevention and treatment. Conceptually, physical activity and a healthy diet can improve insulin sensitivity and should be effective in reducing AD, but existing evidence to develop effective lifestyle approaches is limited, and this too appears to be an important potential area for research.”

The first part is totally disheartening, and makes me feel like there’s nothing for me to do but to lie down and let the Alzheimer’s and resign myself to sharing inappropriate anecdotes with my children and other friends, or forgetting the name of my youngest child…

Both of those happened with Dad. Outbursts of anger, as well (though, to be perfectly frank, Dad was well known for not only the anger thing, but also a getting in fights thing when he was a kid growing up in Loring Park (downtown Minneapolis).

It was the loss of his grip on reality that frightens me most. He called me a 3:00 am more than once to tell me that he thought that “Your mother has left me. I don’t know why.” I would have to calm him with the tale that my mother had passed away a few days/months/years ago. Which would bring him crashing into reality in total silence.

Those times, or when I had to explain that the person driving him home from a fishing trip was my younger brother, Paul. Or explaining over and over that Mom had died…

Now, I find out that my being a Type 2 diabetic increases the chance of my developing those plaques and tangles and a greater chance of developing Alzheimer’s.

Finally, I read the WORST part: “Clinical trials are underway to investigate the potential of the GLP‐1 RA semaglutide (which you may know as the WONDERDRUG used by people desperate to lose weight by giving themselves shots of…well, I could write out the actual name, but the brand names of semaglutide start with O, W, M, Z and their ilk) rather than controlling their appetites. This has led to insurance coverage being reduced or eliminated in modifying Type 2 diabetics. It is also preventing the potential to control and treat Alzheimer’s Disease among early‐stage symptomatic patients. The sodium‐glucose co‐transporter 2 Inhibitors (SGLT2i; known as those letters listed a few sentences ago) may also have neuroprotective antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory effects, increasing neurogenesis and synaptic activity and decreasing ischemic neuronal damage and mitochondrial dysfunction, as well as improving hyperglycemia and insulin sensitivity.”

So, there you go. First, Type 2 diabetes may lead to Alzheimer’s; and the treatment for both prevention and treatment has been adjudged to be nothing more than a cure for obesity. (and therefore ELECTIVE and therefore probably not covered by insurance or cash on the barrelhead...)

Have a nice day.

Breast Cancer: https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2011/04/observations-of-breast-cancer-husband.html
Alzheimer’s: https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2016/09/guys-gotta-talk-aboutalzheimers-1.html
Type 2 Diabetes: https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2022/10/guys-gotta-talk-aboutdiabetes-1.html

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12088849/#:~:text=The%20relationship%20between%20diabetes%20and,these%20factors%20with%20insulin%20resistance.

Image: https://img0.etsystatic.com/il_170x135.112225675.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #30: Can the BRAIN ITSELF Be Targeted To Treat Type 2 Diabetes???

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: “For several years, researchers have known that hyperactivity of a subset of neurons located in the hypothalamus, called AgRP neurons, is common in mice with diabetes.”

So…weirdly enough, I just finished a book called THE THREE POUND ENIGMA: The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock Its Mysteries by Shannon Moffett (©2006). Granted, it’s technically nineteen (most likely 20) years out of date. Most of the book is a fascinating examination of what science and scientists had discovered about the brain up to that point.

But it didn’t talk about how playing with the BRAIN might have an effect on controlling Type 2 diabetes!

“For several years, researchers have known that hyperactivity of a subset of neurons located in the hypothalamus, called AgRP neurons, is common in mice with diabetes. These neurons are playing an outsized role in hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes,” said UW Medicine endocrinologist Dr. Michael Schwartz, corresponding author of the paper.

What’s AgRP? “Agouti-related protein, is produced in the brain by the AgRP/NPY neuron. The cells controlled by the AgRP increase appetite and decrease metabolism and energy expenditure. It is one of the most potent and long-lasting of appetite stimulators.”

So, this protein come from the brain and makes me hungry and lazy!

How’d they figure out the connection between the brain and my Type 2 diabetes? (Not that it comes as any great surprise...)

 Once they discovered the connection, “…researchers…made AgRP neurons express tetanus toxin, which prevents the neurons from communicating with other neurons. Unexpectedly, this intervention normalized high blood sugar for months, despite having no effect on body weight or food consumption.”

“The new findings align with studies published by the same scientists showing that injection of a peptide called FGF1 directly into the brain also causes diabetes remission in mice. This effect was subsequently shown to involve sustained inhibition of AgRP neurons…Further research might help scientists to better understand the role of AgRP neurons in how the body normally controls blood sugar, and to ultimately translate these findings into human clinical trials, he added.”

WHOA!!! Amazing! (Weird how I just happened to be reading a book on how the brain works!)

So…if I understand this right, it may someday be possible for me to get a shot to the brain by a protein that makes neurons in my brain produce a TETANUS TOXIN...that abruptly causes the communication between neurons to STOP telling my body that it wants to eat more and exercise less? And this will make my blood sugars return to normal?

WOW!

Now don’t get me wrong – THIS IS NOT A TREATMENT YET!!!!!

But…it’s a possible treatment, AND has the advantage of removing from ME responsibility of taking ANY blame for being diabetic! Just the RESEARCH is communicating to the world that THIS WAS NOT MY FAULT!!! (Or the fault of my genetics!)

THIS is the definition of "weird science"!

Links: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/05/250515191148.htm
Image: https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1254574508/vector/world-diabetes-day-banner-or-flyer-with-diabetes-symbol-blue-round-frame-and-map-14th.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=lLYo37GeVPirX-phRKE-p6h64a0_BoSMZQ4nFwcS6Y4=

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #32: Taking Ozempic…after LOTS OF RESISTANCE…

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!

You’re SO lucky you’re not my wife…

I’ve ranted against Ozempic pretty much ever since it first appeared. First, I thought it was a lazy way to deal with the necessary measures a person had to take to change their lives and get healthier and deal with the new information about the deadly results of just letting it run its course.

Don’t get me wrong, I WANTED to take the easy way out! But, I also wanted to maintain my sense of self. A modicum of CONTROL over what I could and couldn’t DO with my own body.

Secondly, I railed against how the pharmaceutical world had encouraged, advertised for, and pushed Ozempic (and similar drugs) as a quick, easy, painless, and SIMPLE way for a fat person to eat whatever they want to eat and then just take a shot and watch the ugly fat melt away…no more diets! No more self control (LOATHSOME WORDS to the rich, beautiful, and self-indulgent!)

So, there you have it.

And here you find me. My doctor recommended I take Ozempic – though I fought him to find a pill version. I first discovered that the actual tablet is one of the most bitter things I have ever attempted to ingest. I had to play around with placing it on the correct part of my tongue in order not to taste the horrific thing!

Right after that, and after three or four bottles, I discovered that the COST was absurd: I was being charged over $900 for a three month supply for Rybelsus after my first bottle that my insurance covered…I fought it for almost another year, then my doctor said I NEEDED it to lose enough weight not to drop dead of one of the things that can kill a Type 1 diabetic:

MAJOR COMPLICATIONS OF TYPE 2 DIABETES (as opposed to just being fat, flabby, unfit, and unwilling to do ANYTHING that someone else tells you to do. Why break a sweat when you’re rich enough to buy skinniness with a shot?) WHICH CAN LEAD TO DEATH!

Higher risk of Cardiovascular Disease: heart attack, stroke, and heart failure and its complications. High blood pressure and cholesterol: increase the risk of cardiovascular disease; higher risk of stroke leading to long-term disability and death, and narrowing of the arteries in your legs and feet. Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD - narrowing of the arteries in your legs and feet giving you decreased blood flow damaging skin, muscles, nerves and other tissues.

Chronic Kidney Disease; end-stage renal disease (ESRD); damaging blood vessels in the kidneys, impairing their ability to filter waste (leading to…) kidney failure; damage the kidneys over time which may require dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Diabetic Ketoacidosis: the body produces high levels of ketones creating a life-threatening complication where ketones build up in the blood, making it acidic.

HHS: (Hyperosmolar Hyperglycemic State) very high blood sugar leads to severe dehydration and confusion.

Infections: impaired ability to fight off normal infections and more susceptible to complications from common infections. People with diabetes are more susceptible to infections due to impaired immune function and poor blood circulation; diabetic foot infections (potentially requiring amputation) and severe systemic infections like influenza, pneumonia, a severe form of otitis externa (swimmer's ear) that can spread to the surrounding bones and tissues, particularly affecting the temporal bone and often seen in elderly individuals with diabetes; and a potentially fatal fungal infection affecting the sinuses, brain, and sometimes the eye area (aka, rhinocerebral mucormycosis). The last two are almost exclusively seen in people with diabetes and can be life-threatening.

Gum disease

Eye complications

Nerve Damage: numbness, pain, foot ulcers, infections, possible amputations

Foot problems: ulcers and infections, which can sometimes result in AMPUTATION

Vision/Eye problems such as diabetic retinopathy and blindness

Need I say more? I did NOT become diabetic because I “ate too many sweets as a child” or "REALLY let myself go as a teenager". It’s a disease inherited from your parents. And just because you haven’t been diagnosed YET…well, if you keep a porcine diet, OZEMPIC DOES NOT KEEP YOU FROM GETTING TYPE 2 DIABETES!!!!! LOSING WEIGHT, EXCERCISING, AND A GOOD DIET CAN HELP YOU AVOID DEVELOPING TYPE 2 DIABETES…and even then, there’s no guarantee…

Source: (a few of them) https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/type-2-diabetes, https://www.health.com/condition/type-2-diabetes/diabetes-complications-death, https://diabetes.org/ 

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

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #29: Type 2 diabetes mellitus: One of the Pandemics of the 21st Century (World Health Organization/WHO)

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: What Can I DO about one of the Pandemics of the 21st Century?

If you’re like me, your diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes took you by surprise.

What’s even more surprising to me, is that despite being identified as DIFFERENT conditions some 1600 years ago when Type 1 was associated with young people (hence one of the old names, “juvenile onset diabetes”), [HOWEVER, the rates of type 2 diabetes are increasing in young people today]. Type 2 was associated with being fat (I’m just gonna call it here – “overweight” is so cloyingly polite, it makes me cringe. I will call myself as I see me: I’m fat.

You can self-identify as overweight if it makes you feel better…); we’re no closer today to controlling EITHER ONE and rates of type 2 diabetes have increased markedly since 1960 in parallel with obesity.[

It's hardly surprising then that the rate of Type 2 diabetes has been steadily increasing. In the 1970s, the incidence of Type 2 was 2.7%. In the 1980s, the incidence was 3.6% (approximately 30 million in 1985); and the 1990s, it was 5.8%.

As of 2015, approximately 392 million people diagnosed with the disease. Doing a bit of calculation, given that there are now 8 billion people on Earth (8,000,000,000) and that 11% of the population (800,000,000) of Earth has some form of diabetes and that of that: “The latest IDF Diabetes Atlas (2025) reports that 11.1% – or 1 in 9 – of the adult population is living with diabetes and of THAT number, 90% (or 9 of 10) have Type 2.”

“So, what? Why bother me about it? I’m me! I’m not no one else! What are you gonna do about ME????”

Here’s a little more definition to those numbers: “…[they are] living in low-and middle-income countries. More than half of people living with diabetes are not receiving treatment. Both the number of people with diabetes and the number of people with untreated diabetes have been steadily increasing over the past decades.”

“So, whaddya want ME to do aboudit?!?!?!”

What CAN we do about The Other Pandemic? Diabetes is “…the silent epidemic that claims an estimated 6.7 million lives around the world each year – close to the total recorded death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic. One in ten adults is affected by the condition, and it is one of the top 10 causes of death globally.”

You can’t run out and “save the world” from diabetes!

BUT: Here are some things we CAN DO! https://worlddiabetesday.org/ before, during and after World Diabetes Day, Friday, November 14, 2025! And we can start doing SOMETHING now! I’ll be coming back to this in a few weeks!

Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_2_diabetes , https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circulationaha.106.613828 , https://diabetesatlas.org/media/uploads/sites/3/2025/04/IDF_Atlas_11th_Edition_2025.pdf , https://www.who.int/health-topics/diabetes#tab=tab_1

Image: https://worlddiabetesday.org/

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #31: The SUREST Way to Summer Lower Blood Glucose? MEAT!

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!

The caveat here? DON’T BE STUPID!

As they said in the hysterically ridiculous movie from several hours of misspent young-adulthood, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “And there was much rejoicing.” (To get the full effect of the ridiculous scene, follow this link:) https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/bd0748ad-7c88-4805-b9a4-9d401577e488/gif)

“…higher meat consumption was associated with higher type 2 diabetes incidence ... The current findings support the notion that lowering the consumption of unprocessed red meat and processed meat could benefit public health by reducing the incidence of type 2 diabetes. Uncertainty remains regarding the positive association between poultry consumption and the incidence of type 2 diabetes, and this association should be further investigated.”

Let’s be clear here: “…Red meat refers to beef, veal, lamb, mutton, pork, goat and venison. (It does not include chicken, turkey, goose, duck, game and rabbit.)

“Processed meat refers to any meat that has been preserved by smoking, curing, salting or using preservatives. This includes sausages, ham, bacon, salami, pate, and canned meat such as corned beef. It may also include other meats such as sliced luncheon meat made from white meat, such as chicken and turkey.”

OK – I am going to speak for myself now. When I eat red meat (mostly hamburger, rarely steak…(What? Do I look like I’m made of MONEY???), I don’t down eight or nine burgers at a time.

I don’t LIKE processed meats – except for RARE bacon, turkey sausages, I had enough luncheon meat growing up as a kid, that I DON’T eat lunch meat anymore.

I KNOW the “average American” eats too much meat. Some of that comes from meat being associated with MONEY!!! Like, how many of us see movies where the really rich heroine dines out on filet mignon? (Have YOU ever had filet mignon? For me, it’s pretty much a big, fat, NO! We buy ground turkey, sliced turkey or chicken, and turkey breasts – the cheap ones, like from CUB or HyVee? Rarely do we get the high class stuff unless we’re making something REALLY nice.

So, when I have a reasonable meal of chicken, or decent pork loin, or even a cheap steak plus some veggies (in the summer I LOVE ME SOME GRILLED VEGGIES!!! Zucchini, corn on the cob, carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, squash, and onions? Yessiree!) Here’s a recipe I found online – I don’t voice for it except it looks GOOD!

https://thewholecook.com/steak-roasted-veggies/

There are lots of cookbooks – and like us, you don’t need to BUY a cookbook! Check one out from the library. Specifically search, “healthy cookbooks” and add in whatever you’re looking for specifically – fish, chicken, hamburger, pork…whatever. There are SMART ways to cook practically anything on the grill!

Of COURSE stuffing my face all the time with fatty meats and veggies dripping in butter washed down with a glass of melted butter and French fried lard slices is going to make my glucose numbers soar to the high heavens!

Duh…

But being smart when you eat meat or chicken or turkey and include LIGHTLY roasted veggies with some olive oil and season NOT SALT. There ARE other seasoning things besides salt – the EASIEST is pepper! I happen to like pepper a lot. Learn to use it; and maybe pick up a seasoning that ISN’T mostly salt.

We CAN be healthy and enjoy ourselves a good meal on the barbeque!

AND KEEP OUR BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS AT ACCEPTABLE LEVELS! If I can do it, you can, too!

Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(24)00179-7/fulltext; https://www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk/oafu/diet/red-processed-meat
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg