I had a couple of comments from 'Paul' on my last post which I printed unmoderated, and I feel that the comments warrant an answer. I will give my responses in blue:
In his comments Paul said
"Do not listen to doctors or take their drugs (such as Metformnin) at least until you have read up on what mercola has to say as regards treating T2D with exercise and changes in diet. I have researched extensively on T2D and yes if you have pre diabetes, exercise and diet can delay the full onset. I don't have pre diabetes, I have full blown T2D. My body does not produce enough insulin, and what it does produce my body is resistant to. I am not a medical person and cannot make sense of all the conflicting and contradictory stuff you can find on the internet. I trust my GP and the advice he gives, and also the diabetes specialist that he refers me to.
You write: "I still eat healthy" ... are you sure about that? Have you always? What do you consider healthy. T2D is like smoking. The damage is acquired over years and can only be undone over months and years. I have eaten fresh fruit and vegetables daily for decades. I avoid salt and added sugars and rarely eat fast food or preprepared foods. I have less than one unit of alcohol daily, and have not drunk to excess for about 30 years. I have avoided additives and preservatives as I knew of the damage they caused as long ago as the seventies. I avoid aspartme with a vengence. The research that I have read tells me that D2D once established is not reversible. It is however manageable. In the UK we have a very good health system and my GP is providing excellent care, checking all associated risks such as CVD and CHD.
"I am still relatively sedentary". This says that until now you have been sedentary in your life. don't expect miracles but decent exercise and diet will undo some of the harm you've done yourself through a sedentary lifestyle." As well as Chronic T2D I also have had lower back pain and knee problems since my teens. I have latterly added hip problems to my list. These are also classed as chronic and have been addressed where possible by surgery to sadly a limited success. I cannot run or jog or swim or lift weights etc. I do what I can, use stairs rather than elevators/lifts etc. I am not a blob glued to the couch, but I am not able to enjoy the benefits of a gym. To compensate this I have had an excellent diet for about 35 years now.
Paul, thank you for your comments and thank you for the reference to the Mercola site, I was aware of it and many similar. I am very sorry to hear that your father passed away from D2D CVD complications, losing a loved one is never easy. My own father passed away at too young an age and I know what a distressing time that is, no day goes by where something doesn't remind me of him.
If you read back through my previous blogs you will see that I comment on diabetes and some of the things that I have discovered. I never moderate comments and welcome every one I receive, you will also see how impressed I am with the medical care I have received. On the framingham scale I am actually a lower risk of CVD and CHD than a non diabetic. (also blogged recently).
Diabetes is a sentence for life but I do not treat it as a life sentence but I do treat it with respect.
Monday
Well that was a surprise. I've just appeared on the BBC website (click here). It follows an interview I gave the BBC ages ago and I had almost forgotten about it, and then today I had a very nice comment from Stuart Diamond on my entry from a few days ago. It reminded me that a few times in the past I have a had blood tests done, usually on a precheck prior to going into hospital, and they had suggested diabetes and referred me to my GP for a thorough check up. So I would go and have a check up, and no diabetes found. Not forgetting that I had an annual medical at work that included blood checks, I was supposedly diabetes free for many many years.
But now I wonder.
I wonder if my diabetes was 'waxing and waning' somehow.
I wonder if we need a better way of checking.
Anyway, I still eat healthy, I am still relatively sedentary, but do what I can. I have just built lean to and am now removing a huge old tree and preparing land for growing vegetables. I am not a couch potato, but it just takes me a lot longer to do things than many other people. I refuse to give into my arthritis and I refuse to give into my diabetes.
And people still label me as a glutton because I am diabetic. In response I mentally label them as ignorant. Perhaps I am just as bad as they are.
But now I wonder.
I wonder if my diabetes was 'waxing and waning' somehow.
I wonder if we need a better way of checking.
Anyway, I still eat healthy, I am still relatively sedentary, but do what I can. I have just built lean to and am now removing a huge old tree and preparing land for growing vegetables. I am not a couch potato, but it just takes me a lot longer to do things than many other people. I refuse to give into my arthritis and I refuse to give into my diabetes.
And people still label me as a glutton because I am diabetic. In response I mentally label them as ignorant. Perhaps I am just as bad as they are.
Thursday
Well the news is good on the job front. I have been successful and have been offered a position. The future now looks brighter stil. Talking of the future, as the cooler weather is on its way (come on, be honest, if you live north of the Equator it darn well is!), here is a thought. You have heard the phrase cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey? Bet you thought it was a bit smutty? Well read on my friend, read on.
It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon on old wooden war ships. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck was the problem. The best storage method devised was to stack them as a square based pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate with 16 round indentations, called, for reasons unknown, a Monkey. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make them of brass - hence, Brass Monkeys. Few of us landlubbers realise that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.
And all this time, you thought that was just a vulgar expression, didn't you?
It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon on old wooden war ships. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck was the problem. The best storage method devised was to stack them as a square based pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate with 16 round indentations, called, for reasons unknown, a Monkey. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make them of brass - hence, Brass Monkeys. Few of us landlubbers realise that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.
And all this time, you thought that was just a vulgar expression, didn't you?
Sunday
I know I haven't blogged for a while, but I have been preoccupied with job hunting, and also building a leanto on the back of the garage, (about which more later).
It seems that GP care varies greatly according to a report in the gradian. 1 in 4 diabetics aren't given the meds that they need? Well I bet that more than 1 in 4 diabetics don't understand their condition, don't bother researching it, and don't bother following medical advice. No, I don't have any actual stats to back that up, my stement is prely anecdotal. When I tell people that I am diabetic, they nearly always know someone else that is diabetic and that has 'problems'. A bit of digging by me and most times you can see that their diabetic friend isn't eating in a diabetic friendly way. It is so easy, just eat a normal '5 a day' healthy diet cutting out most fats and salt. There is no special diabetic diet, my diet is the same one YOU should be eating to be healthy and prolong your life. I have the VERY occasional MacD etc, but I am lucky, I am a NID (non insulin dependant), and so regulating my blood glucose is a bit easier for me, but by far and away most diabetics are NIDs, so it is easier for them too. Someone close was diagnised recently as 'possibly diabetic' and sent for tests. Their reaction? Binging on cream cakes just in case diabetes was later confirmed. O. M. G !! They won't help themselves, so why should Doctors help 'normal sane' people that won't help them selves?
Because they should, that's why, because we trust them to, and because we expect them to. They dispense drugs, sorry medicines, that we can't buy over the counter, and generally should check that there are no compatibility issues. But every packet of drugs that you get on prescription comes with an information sheet that almost no one seems to read. It tells you about the drug, what side effects it has been known to show in some patients and what to avoid. If you read it, you can you know, it is allowed, and then go on the internet (which is in most homes in the UK and is free at every library so EVERYONE has access to it), and search (google) about your condition and your drugs, you can be informed and can know more, and if you have side effects or questions, you can go back to your GP. But people don't.
Just googling diabetes will tell you that, especially if you are diabetic, that aspirin and statins are almost quintessentialy essential for a diabetics and probably most other people too. You had to have been staying with the Clangers on the Moon not to know, it's been in the news for weeks. Okay so you have to get statins from your GP, (try asking, if for some odd reason they haven't been prescribed to you as a diabetic), but aspirin? You can get it so cheaply at supermarkets these days. People who will spend pounds on vitamin tablets they don't need won't spend pence on aspirin that they do! It's crazy.
And how do I know it's all human nature and how even though I do the right thing about diabetes, that is not the only issue? Because I am human. Whilst working on building the lean to in the rain (yes, exactly!) I slipped fell off the scaffold, not far, only about 6 foot, and landed on my back and left arm. Nothing seems to be broken, but I stunned myself and couldn't breathe or move for a short while (that was scary, I thought I had broken my back for a while).
What normal sane man works on a scaffold in the rain?
Me, that's who, but at least my diabetes is under control, and it's probably my own stupidity that'll kill me, not diabetes, and certainly not my GP not giving me the right tablets, because he s doing his job and he is giving me all the right tablets. Good Man!
It seems that GP care varies greatly according to a report in the gradian. 1 in 4 diabetics aren't given the meds that they need? Well I bet that more than 1 in 4 diabetics don't understand their condition, don't bother researching it, and don't bother following medical advice. No, I don't have any actual stats to back that up, my stement is prely anecdotal. When I tell people that I am diabetic, they nearly always know someone else that is diabetic and that has 'problems'. A bit of digging by me and most times you can see that their diabetic friend isn't eating in a diabetic friendly way. It is so easy, just eat a normal '5 a day' healthy diet cutting out most fats and salt. There is no special diabetic diet, my diet is the same one YOU should be eating to be healthy and prolong your life. I have the VERY occasional MacD etc, but I am lucky, I am a NID (non insulin dependant), and so regulating my blood glucose is a bit easier for me, but by far and away most diabetics are NIDs, so it is easier for them too. Someone close was diagnised recently as 'possibly diabetic' and sent for tests. Their reaction? Binging on cream cakes just in case diabetes was later confirmed. O. M. G !! They won't help themselves, so why should Doctors help 'normal sane' people that won't help them selves?
Because they should, that's why, because we trust them to, and because we expect them to. They dispense drugs, sorry medicines, that we can't buy over the counter, and generally should check that there are no compatibility issues. But every packet of drugs that you get on prescription comes with an information sheet that almost no one seems to read. It tells you about the drug, what side effects it has been known to show in some patients and what to avoid. If you read it, you can you know, it is allowed, and then go on the internet (which is in most homes in the UK and is free at every library so EVERYONE has access to it), and search (google) about your condition and your drugs, you can be informed and can know more, and if you have side effects or questions, you can go back to your GP. But people don't.
Just googling diabetes will tell you that, especially if you are diabetic, that aspirin and statins are almost quintessentialy essential for a diabetics and probably most other people too. You had to have been staying with the Clangers on the Moon not to know, it's been in the news for weeks. Okay so you have to get statins from your GP, (try asking, if for some odd reason they haven't been prescribed to you as a diabetic), but aspirin? You can get it so cheaply at supermarkets these days. People who will spend pounds on vitamin tablets they don't need won't spend pence on aspirin that they do! It's crazy.
And how do I know it's all human nature and how even though I do the right thing about diabetes, that is not the only issue? Because I am human. Whilst working on building the lean to in the rain (yes, exactly!) I slipped fell off the scaffold, not far, only about 6 foot, and landed on my back and left arm. Nothing seems to be broken, but I stunned myself and couldn't breathe or move for a short while (that was scary, I thought I had broken my back for a while).
What normal sane man works on a scaffold in the rain?
Me, that's who, but at least my diabetes is under control, and it's probably my own stupidity that'll kill me, not diabetes, and certainly not my GP not giving me the right tablets, because he s doing his job and he is giving me all the right tablets. Good Man!
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