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

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #18: Fifteen Months Post-Diabetes Diagnosis: WHAT DO I KNOW? WHAT HAVE I DONE???

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!

Yeah – and there you go! “Physician, heal thyself! (I’m NOT a doctor, but you get the idea!) Guy, what have YOU DONE to get healthier, maybe survive your diabetes to an old age???? I mean besides taking your meds – ANYONE can do that! What’s so special about YOU, ya doofus!”

So, here I am to say, “There’s NOTHING special about me and what I do to try and control my diabetes.”

You give me a weird look and say, “So, why are you even WRITING this blog? You’re no better than ME!”

I’d have to say, “You’re right. I’m no better than you.”

Even so, here’s what I HAVE CHANGED:

1) I RECORD on a paper chart blood pressure, glucose, weight, and how many steps I take a day, then I convert it to miles – 1865 steps = 1 mile on MY devices. WHY: Lately my glucose has been low high (my target is 170; lately in the 180s to 200. I want to know what behaviors and foods have the greatest glycemic impact for me. Also, what kind of impact does exercise have? I have a four day cycle: bike (I normally bike on our nearby trail system: short ride (4 miles); long ride (5.5-8 miles); day off; short ride (4 miles).

2) I’ve have been STRUGGLING to not eat anything at all after 7 pm each evening. Success is highly variable. I HAVE discovered what NOT to eat after 7 and that my blood sugars are MUCH happier when I don’t eat anything at all after 7.

3) I’ve learned to relax when I take my BP – the difference between a “slap the sleeve on, take the BP, and record it” gives me higher (sometimes substantially higher!) numbers than if I take time to meditate/recite a Bible verse in my head a few times and ponder it.

4) I’m HORRIBLE at remembering to take my evening pills (2 metformin, 1 cholesterol). My family never even took vitamins, so this pill thing for anything but antibiotics and pain relievers is an entirely new idea for me…my sixty-some years habit of NOT taking pills has proven hard to break.

5) I’m forcing myself to be mindful of what I eat. Example: this afternoon, I had 2 whole wheat tortillas, cubed chicken breast, liberal kimchi (kimchi is considered a probiotic. I’ve also been experimenting with kombucha) (see https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2023/08/guys-gotta-talk-aboutdiabetes-13.html) But watching what I eat isn’t easy.

6) I’ve been blogging my life changes. That’s been important for me – not so much for your entertainment, but to gather my own thoughts together and begin to see trends and habits of thinking – all the better for me to remain reasonably healthy.

7) Blogging also allows me to keep up with the current research on Type 2 diabetes; and that’s a good thing intellectually. Oftentimes I don’t only read the “popular” articles on the BBC News or in magazines, but I go online and delve into the original papers in as many medical journals that I can access for free. That takes time and thought to figure out what they’re trying to say – which is where my articles on Breast Cancer, Alzheimer’s and Type 2 Diabetes have come from: reading beyond the popular expression of some “miracle breakthrough!”

8) THE NASTIEST ONE FOR ME??? Drinking plain water…I NEED to drink up to two liters a day – when I forget both my blood pressure and my blood sugars go up. It also makes it harder for me to donate blood plasma…

9) Which is the 9th thing I’ve changed. Plasma, while you DO get paid for this liquid that your red blood cells are suspended in, the product is also LIFE SAVING in at least two important ways. First is the plasma is broken up into products that, when used with an individual – like my wife’s brother – who was born lacking blood clotting factors…it’s called hemophilia. As well, plasma is used for ambulance accident victims. Having the red blood cells removed means that the liquid has no “type”. Plasma is used with victims who have lost blood and NEED to have their blood fluids increased so that their body can maintain a blood pressure high enough to keep them alive.

So, there you go! While I am neither a physician nor am I healing myself, I AM making changes in my lifestyle to keep me living long enough to see all three of my grandchildren get married (or whatever a commitment ceremony will look like in the future)!

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

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #12: NEW Cause of 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: STARTING with a 2014 article, “Diabetes – Will it Ever be cured?”; I check up on the various therapies mentioned…

“A new study by researchers at Lund University provides increased support for the idea that epigenetic changes can cause type 2 diabetes. The researchers behind the new findings published in Nature Communications now aim to develop methods for disease prevention.” (Link below for the Science Digest condensed version!)

OK – so what does this mean? The key words are “epigenetic changes”.

You already know that we get our genes – hair color, body build, bone structure, even aspects of personality – from our parents. We’re made up of half of each parent’s DNA.

Now, the DNA doesn’t come out in us as a PERFECT half Mom-half Dad proportions. I can look more like my mom and my sister can look more like our dad than us being perfect blends of both parents.

The same is also true for susceptibility to disease, ability to recover from injury, tendency toward receiving certain kinds of injury. For example, while I am NOT TALKING ABOUT PREDESTINATION!!!!, it’s possible that bone and joint structure can lead to some siblings having “bad knees” and others having no trouble at all. Some siblings may show early signs of heart disease, others may have no trouble. Still others my experience kidney stones, while no on else in the family has that challenge.

“Epigenetics is the study of how your behavior and the environment around you can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.”

That was the simple explanation! How about this: you have you DNA. There’s ALL SORTS of information stored on there. Like say lung cancer is a big issue in your family. But when your parents got married, Dad insisted that because his parents died of lung cancer after smoking since they were old enough to hold a cigarette (and grew up in a house where Mom and Dad smoked like a coal-fired power plant). NO ONE IN HIS FAMILY WAS GOING TO EVER LET A CIGARETTE TOUCH THEIR LIPS.

While he dies of lung cancer, none of the ten kids ever have any kind of problem with lung cancer…because they weren’t exposed to the conditions that would “activate” the gene that would malfunction and allow them to develop lung cancer.

In fact, I spent my first six years of life with a dad who smoked regularly, yet I've never had a single issue in the sixty years since he stopped...

The article goes on to say: “…epigenetic changes that arise due to environmental and lifestyle factors can affect the function of genes.” And this means…what?

I have the genes that would let me develop Type 2 diabetes. If I had made different choices in my life: become a long-distance runner; learned to love exercise; paid even MODERATE attention to my diet (NOT just stop eating so much sugar…as I’ve pointed out before, TABLE sugar is SUCROSE; blood sugar is GLUCOSE. While related they are NOT the same. EVERYTHING you eat gets broken down into glucose – not just candy sugar! Fats, proteins, and carbohydrates all break down into glucose. Surprisingly, FAT is one of the biggest culprits of diabetes glucose surges. It’s why the October 23, 2023 article on the HealthLine website dings off 17 foods that can lower your blood sugar (aka GLUCOSE!!!)

They are (in no particular order): broccoli/broccoli sprouts; seafood (NOT FRIED!!!); pumpkin/pumpkin seeds; nuts/nut butter (NOT SWEETENED!); okra (EWWW! Sorry, not a big okra fan!); flax seed; beans and lentils; chia seeds; kimchi/sauerkraut (sauerkraut (EWWWW!) I love kimchi!); kale; BERRIES (any kind!); avocados; oats/oat bran (dark chocolate chip oatmeal cookies sweetened with monk sugar?…can’t even tell the difference!); citrus FRUITS (not citrus DRINKS! They have tons of sugar-added); kefir and yogurt (a plus for me is the yogurt adds calcium – one cup, twice a week, keeps my legs from cramping!); eggs; apples (we live in Minnesota – we INVENTED some of the most popular apple varieties and we’ve gone apple picking every fall for years now!)…

So – even if you come from a family with parents who have Type 2 diabetes – you can make good choices NOW and prevent the same fate!

Links: 17 Foods to Lower Your Blood Sugar (healthline.com);
Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg

Christmas 2023: "...the shadow of the cross is cast by the light of Bethlehem's star."

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer; the first hints of Dad's Alzheimer's; the first of my own grapples with diabetes...there was an awkward silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer, or parent or spouse had Alzheimer's Disease, or who had Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes themselves...seem disinclined to talk and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

I remember the first holiday during my wife’s recovery – the double mastectomy had been in March; chemotherapy had taken most of the summer. Then the holidays were upon us.

I didn’t write about ANYTHING having to do with them. I certainly don’t remember what we did, but my guess is that family time was curtailed and we likely spent that time at home.

The significant thing was that I DIDN’T WRITE ABOUT IT.

If you take a moment and notice the nearly 500 posts I’ve done since March of 2011, you can imagine the significance of that. I was writing about different kinds of cancers as well as describing the origins and effects of the various drugs she’d endured during chemotherapy.

I was NOT talking about either her feelings or my feelings during the holidays. There are no comments on Thanksgiving or the first day of school or any other significant days during that time. Everything was focused on CANCER. DEFEATING CANCER. My “Christmas Message” in 2012 was “Chemo Killed Colds?” How meaningful.

Maybe I was mad still? My daughter certainly was.

Finally, in 2013, I dealt with it. Below you’ll find the post I managed to write then…

"Random, huh? Whew! Talk about random! Why would thoughts of death intrude on this holy time of year when we celebrate Santa Claus, children, “Ho, ho, ho!”, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER…

Oh, and the Birth of the Christ Child.

I think about how Target and Walmart and Kay Jewelers and Marshall’s have coopted the season. And Christians fight back with pictures of Santa kneeling at the Manger.

My wife and daughter and I watched one of our season’s favorites the other night, Joyeux Noël (a 2005 French film about the World War I Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, Scottish and German soldiers…written and directed by Christian Carion…screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival…nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards. The film was one of Ian Richardson's last appearances before his death on 9 February 2007.)

The one Christian Holy Day Wall Street has never been able to coopt is Easter, because Easter is secularly speaking, about a gruesome, governmental execution. For Christians it’s about sacrifice and Resurrection – much like the film, Joyeux Noël.

Much like life in the shadow of death that breast cancer brings to everyone who experiences it, or loves someone who experiences it, or works with those who experience it. Like the inevitable end of virtually every Alzheimer's patient. Even when a diagnosis of diabetes seems to throw a shadow over the future.

This holiday season is somewhat sober for me for many reasons. Yet somehow that has created in me a deeper appreciation for the joy of this same season – a profound thankfulness for many, many things. This thankfulness isn’t like the Christmas play in MERRY CHRISTMAS, CHARLIE BROWN! Rather it’s like the thankfulness of Linus’ recitation of Luke 2: 1-14 – calm, peaceful, fully aware of what he is saying.


An interesting side-story, from Wikipedia: "Christian Carion (who wrote "Joyeux Noel") spent his youth in his parent's farm fields in Northern France, where he was constantly reminded of World War I as the family often found dangerous, unexploded shells left over from the conflicts in the fields. He had also heard of the stories in which French soldiers would leave their trenches at night to meet with their wives in the surrounding German-occupied towns and return to fight the next morning. Carion stated that he'd never heard of the actual Christmas truce incidents while growing up in France, as the French Army and authorities suppressed them, having been viewed as an act of disobedience. He was introduced to the stories via a historian who showed him photos and documents archived in France, Great Britain, and Germany, and became fascinated. He tried to portray all of the soldiers with equal sympathy, as "the people on the frontline can understand each other because they are living the same life and suffering the same way", so he could understand how the truce could have come about. He endeavored to stay true to the real stories, but one of the things he had to change was the fate of the cat that crossed into various trenches. In reality, the cat was accused of spying, arrested by the French Army and then shot by a firing squad, as an actual traitor would have been. The extras in the movie refused to participate in this scene, so it was amended to have the cat imprisoned."]

On that sobering note, and as a reminder of something I discovered a few days ago, "I forget that the shadow of the cross is cast by the light of the star over Bethlehem", I go to ponder this again...


May your Holy Day Season remind you of the same.

Image: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2080/2146696283_afc861ff00_o.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #17: Diabetes and Holiday Cheer…

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’m sure you’ve got all of your “hacks” for surviving the holiday Food Onslaught! I’m aware of it this year because my wife and I had our FIRST big party – making and decorating sugar cookies, Russian teacakes, with tacos afterward…

Haven’t taken my blood sugars yet, but I’m sure they won’t be great. My stomach is rumbling as well, so it inspired me to do a bit of work for myself, and I’ll share with you:

The A-1 thing to do during the holidays is to PLAN AHEAD! Your eleven-year-old granddaughter can eat six cookies and burn it off the next day. My 66-year-old metabolism DON’T WORK THAT WAY ANYMORE!

Make fruits and veggies a BIGGER part of our holidays than usual; and make them good so OTHERS will join me in eating healthier.

I need to pay Attention to how MUCH I’m eating.

I’ve tried the “fast-and-binge” method and it doesn’t work well for me – ON THE OTHER HAND, the “ignore-what-I’m-eating-and-it-will-all-go-away” hasn’t been particularly helpful, either!

I need to make sure I DRINK WATER! In our place, with three grandchildren, six kids and their spouses – we lay on the cases of soda. I should be drinking SOME water, at least!

I SHOULD test the blood sugars regularly – the problem with my is that I only get so many test strips each cycle (that insurance pays for), so I have to stick (no pun intended) with taking it once a day. My wife’s got a constant glucose monitor, so that’s one thing she can do regularly!

If I work to spread out the KINDS of carbs I'm indulging in and MAYBE avoid eating 18 sugar cookies with frosting or two bowls of chocolate-dipped pretzels. Steer toward oatmeal-raisin cookies, maybe broccoli instead of corn, and bring a lentil stew for everyone to enjoy.

When I toast in the New Year – I can work hard to control the amount. I don’t NEED a bottle of champagne when a fluted glass will do just fine!

One thing about youngsters during the holidays, they WANT to be out in the snow! I'm planning to join them sometimes!

If the holidays bring sadness with them – and they often do – I need to be aware of that and make a plan for doing something thoughtful that reminds me of happier days. The holidays are SUPPOSED to be a celebration of the things we hold dear. What can WE do or ask other to HELP US DO that will add a spark of peace to the holidays?

Finally, from THE STRAWBERRY POST: Here to Entertain, Educate & Inspire!

“Diabetes isn’t meant to stop you enjoying Christmas, but it’s good to be aware of what can happen during this time. So please be aware in the lead up to Christmas and make sure that you know what could occur and how to fix it so you can enjoy the day as much as possible.”

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL!

Resources During The Holidays: https://our.today/wellness-watch-how-to-maintain-your-diet-as-a-diabetic-during-the-christmas-season/ ; https://www.bannerhealth.com/healthcareblog/better-me/how-can-i-manage-my-diabetes-and-still-enjoy-the-holidays

Image: https://thestrawberrypost.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/table-with-christmas-decoration-and-food.jpg