Posted on 07/02/2008 1:11:47 AM PDT by neverdem
In a set of recent focus groups, participants were asked to rank the severity of various health problems, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
On a scale of 1 to 10, cancer and heart disease consistently ranked as 9s and 10s. But diabetes scored only 4s and 5s.
“The general consensus seems to be, ‘There’s medication,’ ‘Look how good people look with diabetes’ or ‘I’ve never heard of anybody dying of diabetes,’ ” said Larry Hausner, chief executive of the American Diabetes Association, which held the focus groups. “There was so little understanding about everything that dealt with diabetes.”
But diabetes is anything but minor. It wreaks havoc on the entire body, affecting everything from hearing and vision to sexual function, mental health and sleep. It is the leading cause of blindness, amputations and kidney failure, and it can triple the risk for heart attack and stroke.
“It is a disease that does have the ability to eat you alive,” said Dr. John B. Buse, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine who is the diabetes association’s president for medicine and science. “It can be just awful — it’s almost unimaginable how bad it can be.”
Diabetes results when the body cannot use blood sugar as energy, either because it has too little insulin or because it cannot use insulin. Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95 percent of cases, typically develops later in life and is associated with obesity and lack of exercise. Type 1 diabetes, which is often diagnosed in children, occurs when the immune system mistakenly destroys cells that make the insulin.
The disconnect between perception and reality is particularly worrisome at a time when national diabetes rates are surging. Just last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The best site I have found hands down is Blood Sugar 101 and I highly recommend it.
My goal is to make it into the 5% Club found at the same site. Have not made it yet although I am in the 7% club now and sometimes break into the 6% club.
Hope this is of use to those concerned about their own or a loved one's Type II diabetes.
6% club here.
Guess I’m a member of the 5% club. For several years now my A1c has been in the 5.0 - 5.5 range.
I was diagnosed with type two shortly after my wife died. It scared the stuffing out of me. I knew one man who died and several who lost their feet due to complications. I took the diagnosis seriously and changed my eating habits, lost 80 pounds, attended the courses at the hospital and studied the literature.
I intentionally allowed my blood sugar get too low and too high to see what it would feel like - in case I didn’t have my meter with me. The medical description in the literature was meaningless to me. I found that when the level was over about 200 I would fell like laying down and taking a nap - even when there was no reason to be sleepy. When it fell below 60 I felt like I had a good buzz.
I learned that weight work burned a lot of sugar. If I want to enjoy a pancake breakfast I enjoy it (maybe one a month), when I do I increase from a 10 minute workout to a half hour workout and my BGL will be around 160 two hours after eating. Experimenting with diet and exercise while closely monitoring taught me what I could and could not so. The information in the literature is based on the average patient - and all people aren’t alike.
At our last meeting at the hospital the nurse was happy with my AC1 - 5%. The rest of the people were in the 7-12 range. The nurse asked me to share my “secret”. I told her it was easy. I normally eat a light breakfast, and have a Jack sandwich for lunch and a light supper - and no after supper snacking. She asked what a Jack sandwich was.
“A shot of Jack Daniel’s sandwiched between two bottles of Budweiser.”
At first she looked shocked, but said whatever worked for me and the rest of the people looked like they were going to try it.
I did make a drastic lifestyle change, and it wasn’t easy - but all I had to do was think about my feet rotting off and it was easier to drive past the fast food joint. It was easier to forgo the late night snaking. I could even watch TV without eating.
I have been 6% for the last two years and holding steady.
bump for later
It ought to be associated with the garbage marketed as 'food' in 'grocery' stores. Of course; that explains the obesity...
“It ought to be associated with the garbage marketed as ‘food’ in ‘grocery’ stores.”
So true. Most of the “fat free” stuff at the supermarket was loaded with fructose and other sugars. That only makes one crave sugar all the more. My son is a type 1 Diabetic since he was 17 years old. He is now on the insulin pump. His managing quite nicely. His A1c went down from 9 to 7 since starting the pump. I am still struggling with my A1c.
Thanks for the link.
Yup.
My Endocrynologist (ductless glands doc) said this: “Everybody’s afraid of the “C” word. They SHOULD be afraid of the “D” word.
“It ought to be associated with the garbage marketed as ‘food’ in ‘grocery’ stores.”
Agree. I exhort you all to turn every package around and read beginning at “Ingredients”. The government requires they tell the truth here. The front label is almost alway Obamese: Catchwords and subliminals.
That's the easy approach to explaining the problem and one the nanny staters over at the Center for Science in the Public Interest would applaud. The fact is you have more food choices today than at any other time in history. Fresh fruit and vegetables are available year round and you can purchase a vast array of food and beverages with low fat, no fat, low salt, no salt, sugar free, allergen free, gluten free, carb free, low cholesterol, trans fat free, no added MSG, preservative free and on and on.
With so much variety and so many choices available it is absurd to blame the food industry, who are only giving people what they want, for the obesity problem.
This kind of misunderstanding will only embolden to food police in their quest to manage your freedom by limiting your choices. People today consume too many calories, mostly from carbs, and exercise far too little. If more people understood this fact along with some basic nutrition, we'd have a lot less diabetes and less demand for more regulation and punishment of industry. If you think food prices are high now just wait until the nanny staters get the support they need to sue and tax them into oblivion.
Conservatives should know better.
Ironically, we’ve found that a Kosher diet is great for diabetes control and prevention. Sometimes, you gotta listen to the writer of the owner’s manual.
As a fat person, who’s sitting around posting on Free Republic - I can’t handle the truth!!!
I’ll read the article another time.
Intensive Glycemic Control Fails to Cut Cardiovascular Risk: Focus on blood pressure, lipid changes.
International Study Challenges U.S. Findings on Diabetes
Diabetes Study Partially Halted After Deaths
FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.
*snrk* Excellent!
Yep - whatever works.
Like I posted, everyone is not alike.
Thank you for this resource! I (and many others) appreciate it so much!
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