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

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…DIABETES #13: Drinking Kombucha Tea MAY Reduce Blood Sugar Levels!

For the first times 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!

August 1, 2023 saw this statement in the research journal, FRONTIERS IN NUTRITION: “People with type-II diabetes who drank the fermented tea drink kombucha for four weeks had lower fasting blood glucose levels compared to when they consumed a similar-tasting placebo beverage, according to results from a clinical trial conducted by researchers at Georgetown University's School of Health, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and MedStar Health. This finding, from a pilot 12-person feasibility trial, points to the potential for a dietary intervention that could help lower blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and also establishes the basis for a larger trial to confirm and expand upon these results.”

Now, before you run out or do an internet search for your nearest Kombucha supplier, note the sentence: “This finding, [is] from a pilot 12-person feasibility trial”. 

What THAT means is that someone had the idea that drinking Kombucha might be a good way to reduce blood sugars in people with Type 2 diabetes. So they gathered a dozen people, made sure they drank Kombucha for four weeks – about eight ounces a day (your average diet Pepsi, Cherry Coke, Mountain Dew, Bubly flavored, carbonated water, and any other standard aluminum can of soda is TWELVE ounces of liquid.)

The study went like this: “one group of people [drank] about eight ounces of kombucha or placebo beverage daily for four weeks and then after a two-month period to 'wash out' the biological effects of the beverages, the kombucha and placebo were swapped between groups with another four weeks of drinking the beverages. Neither group was told which drink they were receiving at the time.”

The result was what you read above – six of the twelve people had a significant change in their blood sugars over the period of the test. What is significant? If you test your blood sugars daily as I do now, you know that the “ideal” number on your glucose monitor should be between 70 and 130.

During this test, the group that was drinking the Kombucha tea, 8 ounces every day for the four week study, saw their glucose monitor numbers go from 164 down to 116! Mine this morning was 184.

So…what do YOU suppose I’m going to do?

Well, keep taking my Metformin for one thing. Then it looks like (according to the site that provided the photo, who ranked each of the types of Kombucha drinks, did so based on multiple factors. They also showed how to get hold of the drink, so next time we’re at Target, I’m gonna pick me up some Kombucha bottles and see what all the excitement’s about…

On the other hand, I’m not going to just “drink the Kool-Aid so-to-speak! I’d also like to find out if there’s a LONG-TERM effect, in other words, is there an effect on the subject’s A1c – which we all know is an indicator of long-term changes in the individual’s blood sugar. I already keep track DAILY of my own blood pressure, weight, blood glucose, and one of three: steps, miles biked, or amount of yardwork/snow shoveling. I’ve got a pretty good baseline here (in case you were wondering, I was a science teacher for 41 years; and I continue to teach a science-based class for two or three weeks in the summer called Alien Worlds because I’m both a science fiction writer and I want young people to know that George Lucas created STAR WARS “aliens” by snapping his fingers and saying, “O! wouldn’t it be cool if we had an alien who looked like an easily sympathizable alien who looks like a humanoid Briard (a dog breed) – what did Leia call Chewbacca that one time? Oh, yeah: “Would someone get this walking carpet out of my way?”…(and if you want to learn more about THAT part of me, you can visit my other blogsite, POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS at https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/)

Source:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230801105026.htm#google_vignette

THE ACTUAL STUDY (very…sciencey, just so you know!): https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1190248/full
Image: https://sporked.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/RANKING_KOMBUCHA_HEADER-UPDATE.jpg,
https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…DIABETES #5: What Does It Mean To “Eat Right” AND WHY IS IT SO FREAKING HARD!?!?!?!?!?!

For the first time since I started this column 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 diabetes.

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! Today: WHY CAN’T I EAT THE WAY I KNOW I SHOULD?????

Sorry for the excessive punctuation marks, but I am so FRUSTRATED!

For example, even when I think I’m “eating right”, when I take my blood sugars in the morning, they STILL show RED!

The only time I get blood sugars where they’re supposed to be is when I fast all day long – like when I KNOW I’m going to Red Robin for supper with one of my oldest friends. Then I have coffee without creamer or Half-and-Half in the morning, just Splenda, and then not eat breakfast and lunch. The last day I did that, my BS (do you experience the same subtle, “I can just ignore my blood sugars because they’re BS” moment that I do? MAN! It’s easy to think that! See, I don’t take insulin yet, and my daily pill regimen is 1 blood pressure pill in the morning, then my cholesterol and my Metformin with supper. My pill box is a little purple thing (with 8 days…don’t try and tell me THAT’S not confusing!) Two of the pills are tiny, of course, the Metformin is the monstrously huge one!)

Anyway, all of the horrific stuff that happens because of Type 2 diabetes – “What KIND of serious problems can insulin resistance (Type 2 diabetes) cause? “stresses the pancreas (where insulin is made) damaging it. Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation. Diabetes and kidney disease due to diabetes caused an estimated 2 million deaths…” these are all practically invisible to me. I haven’t lost a lower limb – though the fact is that I HAVE seen it. I used to be a Certified Nursing Assistant and as a young man, had no trouble getting a job in a nursing home – because there are a FEW old men in there and they usually deal with female caregivers. They LOVED having me and I learned to keep up enough with sports, hunting, and politics to carry on a reasonably coherent conversation with them. They just liked having a young man around to chat with…One of the men, who was himself still completely “there”, but whose wife had severe dementia, was intelligent, and INCREDIBLY FUNNY. I loved working with him. But once we started to get to know each other, he told my about his wife. He’d chosen to move into the nursing home with her when her medical and health needs got so severe, he simply couldn’t cope with them anymore.

She’d been diabetic most of her life, and eventually had to have both legs amputated below the knees.

So, I KNOW one of the effects. But the others? “stress on the pancreas, damaging it (If it doesn’t hurt, it’s not real, right?)…may cause of blindness (really? In the 21st Century????), kidney failure (I can get one of my kids to donate a kidney!), heart attacks (my Dad had a quintuple bypass when he was like 70 and lived another eighteen years! I’ll just get open heart surgery); stroke – OK, THAT one scares me. Brain stroke can erase a person, creating a true zombie – walking, talking, but the person who used to be in the body is gone…; and lower limb amputation… (“Got it.”). Diabetes and kidney disease due to diabetes cause an estimated 2 million deaths…(and of course, that perennial favorite, “Everybody’s gonna die someday!”)

So, I don’t pay attention because there’s no IMMEDIATE effect on me. I can’t TELL if my pancreas is being damaged, or my eyesight is failing (I’ve had glasses since I was in sixth grade – my eyesight has ALWAYS been failing!), or my kidneys are failing, or I “might” have a heart attack…not of it is immediate.

And I’m not the only one: “Participants’ responses indicated that using healthy eating to control diabetes does not provide immediate, tangible results. Thus, these participants followed their own common sense to guide their diabetes management and improve their health. Clinicians may be better able to help patients eat healthfully if they consider these factors during medical visits.”

So, their common sense is likely as good as mine… “It won’t kill me to eat this one doughnut!” or “If I get a MEDIUM DQ Blizzard, it’s better than getting a large!”

I need to get serious. I mean, ACTUALLY serious. I need to do more than write on this blog. I need to change my life. (“But, I don’t WANT to change my life! I like my life!” to which I will now reply: “You’re gonna get LESS life if you don’t start taking care of yourself NOW!” (Add a foot stomp there at the end. It’s time, Guy, to get serious…)

Resources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3781525/
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…DIABETES #1 The Diagnosis

For the first time since I started this column 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 diabetes. 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!

When I sat down with the Diabetes Education counselor, it was no surprise that I was there.

I’ve been pre-diabetic for a few years. I knew I could change my diagnosis if I just followed a few simple steps. I needed to lose weight, exercise more, and eat right. My response to that knowledge was, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll get to it! Besides I eat pretty good. I ride my bike! I sometimes lose weight!”

Well, the jig is up. I’ve been caught with my proverbial pants down (sorta like the scene in SPIDER-MAN: A Long Way From Home. Nothing evil going down, but he got caught getting ready to put on the black suit that ultimately inspired Ned to call him Night Monkey.) I’m now officially diabetic.

What’s that mean? (TOTALLY UN)Funny you should ask!

I now have a blood sugar monitor kit of my very own. I used it for the first time this morning. My blood sugar level was 173, which my phone tells me is “high”.

And that means, what? Yeah, here’s where the educating myself well enough to understand comes in, plus a little bit of Translating the Doctors.

First a BRIEF history of diabetes (HIGHLY condensed from the Wikipedia article: Diabetes was one of the first diseases described by Human medicine. The term “diabetes” or “to pass through” was first used in 230 BCE by the Greek Apollonius of Memphis

Two types of diabetes were identified as separate conditions for the first time by the Indian physicians Sushruta and Charaka in 400–500 CE with one type being associated with youth and another type with being overweight. It took a long time to create an effective treatment. The early part of the 20th century for Canadians Banting and Best who finally isolated and purified insulin. We’ve known for a fact what causes diabetes FOR A HUNDRED YEARS…

What is blood sugar? It’s pretty simple: “Blood sugar, or glucose, is the main sugar found in your blood. It comes from the food you eat, and is your body's main source of energy. Your blood carries glucose to all of your body's cells to use for energy.”

And what does that have to do with diabetes? “Diabetes is a disease in which your blood sugar levels are too high. Over time, having too much glucose in your blood can cause serious problems…Himsworth published research that differentiated between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. He theorized that many people had insulin resistance rather than insulin deficiency. Insulin resistance is one factor that leads to type 2 diabetes. When a person has insulin resistance, their body cells lose their sensitivity to insulin and are not able to take in glucose. In response, the pancreas increases its output of insulin.”

What’s a NORMAL blood sugar? “Fasting normal blood sugar for a person without diabetes: 70–99 mg/dl (This is what my monitor shows. The funny letters after mean “milligrams per deciliter” or how much glucose (in milligrams – like what most of you antibiotics and Tylenol/Advil/Aleve is measured in) there is in a deciliter (which is one tenth of a liter or about the bottom of a two liter bottle of pop).” Official ADA recommendation for someone with diabetes: 80–130 mg/dl (4.4–7.2 mmol/L) when you get up in the morning (fasting level) and less than 180 mg/dl after you’ve had a meal.”

What KIND of serious problems can insulin resistance (Type 2 diabetes) cause? “stresses the pancreas (where insulin is made) damaging it. Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation. Diabetes and kidney disease due to diabetes caused an estimated 2 million deaths.

And WHAT THE @#$&!* can I do about it? A healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use are ways to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. How much am I SUPPOSED to weigh? (If you want to know about yourself, click here, supply the numbers and it will tell you! ( https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323446#body-mass-index-bmi ) I weigh 255 pounds. I should be between 136-172 pounds. So…to be safe, I need to lose 150 pounds…

“Diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with diet, physical activity, medication and regular screening and treatment for complications.”

No other sentence I have ever typed sounded so incredibly SIMPLE and terrifyingly DIFFICULT...I have my work cut out for me and it’s (finally) time to get serious.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317484#non-insulin-treatment, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes,
For MORE details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_diabetes
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg