Anybody here have Diabetes?

[Ghost]

SSH started with saying that artificial sweeteners are a good substitute for sugar because sugar overdose can make you a diabetic. As a fact this struck me wrong. It seems I cannot get my point across here, or, also possible, it might be that I've been told the wrong things.

All I *wanted* to say is that any artificial sweetener leads to the pancreas producing insulin. Right? That is different than saying "insulin being used". Because insulin opens the cells for *sugar*, not for aspartam and co. And this effect *can* over a long time result in the pancreas growing less effective, and reaching a state of "ineffectiveness" earlier.
In very much the same way most smokers do not get cancer after their first cigarette, but no-one would argue (much) that each year of smoking increases the possible risk of cancer for them.

[RickJ]

First of all Ghost is absolutely wrong about artificial sweeteners stimulating the production of insulin.  The pancreas releases insulin to the bloodstream in response to the presence of glucose in the blood.   Since artificial sweeteners are not converted to glucose by the body (that's the whole point, isn't it?) and so no affect on the pancreas or insulin production (see "Release" in wiki for details ").

Second of all Shawn you are a good man for taking such good care of your cat.  Don't worry too much, I had the same diagnosis about  ten years ago and was able to easily correct my condition in a short period of time by doing a couple of simple things.   Realize that in most cases like yours the body is functioning like it is supposed to and there is nothing broken.  Most often this is due to the over consumption of carbohydrates and can be corrected by decreasing the intake of carbohydrates.  There are some cases where a person's pancreas is, for any number of reasons, not functioning normally but IMHO this not the usual reason.

Glucose in excess of the body's immediate needs is stored in muscles cells as glycogen or in fat cells via insulin.   From my own personal experience the glycogen mechanism (minutes) seems to work faster than the insulin mechanism (1/2 hour+).   When athletes speak about "carbing up" they are in fact talking about saturating their muscle tissues with glycogen which is quickly and easily converted back to glucose for immediate use.  Converting fat back to glucose takes a much longer time and therefore would not be very helpful to an athlete during an event.

If carbohydrate consumption is increased far beyond a person's needs, glycogen capacity becomes maxed out so that the remaining excess glucose is stored as fat via insulin.   Now what happens if that person continues increasing his carbohydrate consumption; he will get fatter and fatter and fatter.    At some point the body will say "WTF, I refuse to get any fatter!" and instead of making more insulin to store more fat the excess glucose is dumped into the urine where it exits the body.   This point is different for every individual but every individual has a limit where this happens. 

So now what can you do about it?

• Stop eating potatoes - This is your single most worst enemy ( couldn't resist the bad grammar).  Potatoes are a huge carbohydrate load, huge.   McDs is even worse because the sugar coat their fries ...
  
  
• Stop eating rice and noodles - These are the second worse enemies.   Not quite as bad for you as potatoes but still bad.
  
  
• Stop eating bread, cake, ice cream, etc - Believe it or not bread is not as bad as potatoes.   Cake, ice cream, and other sweets probably are as bad as potatoes but usually eat more potatoes than these.
  
  
• Drink diet pop instead of regular - If by some miracle diet pop does stimulate more insulin production this will help your condition but I wouldn't count on it.   Eliminating the sugar is enough.
  
  
• Eat meat - You can eat any amount of meat without increasing your blood glucose level.  Be careful eating out, some meat dishes are prepared with sugars of one kind or another (Chinese,  barbecue, etc).   
  
  
• Vegtables are OK - Some vegetables are better than others.   Stay away from the root type vegetables because they are like potatoes.  The ones that grow on top the ground are a mixed bag but in general they tend to even themselves out.  Use your meter to check them all out to see which ones are good or bad.
  
  
• Fruits - be careful - Fruits are a great source of nutrients, vitamins, etc but they are also loaded with sugar so be careful. 
  
  
• Use Splenda instead of sugar - Great sugar substitute, same volume, flavor, and other characteristics as sugar.
  
  
• Drink lots of water - Keeping yourself hydrated dilutes glucose concentration and increases kidney function.
  
  
• Purchase Glucose Meter - I can recommend the OneTouch brand of meters.  They seem to be very good and have worked well for me.   
  
  The Cure
  This is what I did.  You can try it and see if it works for you.
  
  Weeks 1-2
  The first 2 weeks are the hardest part.  Use your meter and test your blood sugar.   Don't eat anything until your blood sugar drops to the normal range of say 110.  When you do eat avoid carbohydrates like the plague.  Buy yourself a couple nice steaks for the first few days.   Measure and record your blood sugar before going to bed and first thing in the morning.   These two readings are the most important measure of your progress and I will discuss this below.   You of course, will also have to measure multiples times during the day to see when you are allowed to eat.
  
  Weeks 3-6
  Continue measuring and recording your blood sugar before going to bed and first thing in the morning.   The difference in these two numbers is a measure of your progress.   You will be surprised to find out that your sugar will be higher in the morning than it was the night before.  This is because you are a diabetic and you are in a continual state of being "carbed up".  So during the night when you would expect your glucose level to drop your body tries to clear the glycogen from your muscle tissue by converting it to glucose.  As you continue the no or low carb diet your condition should improve.  When it improves you will find that the morning reading reading will start to decrease and get closer to the night time reading.   After 2 weeks your sugar level should be close to normal when normal meal times come around.   Measure your sugar before your meal and let that measurement determine what and how much you eat at that meal.   Alternatively, you can continue waiting until your sugar drops to 110 before eating if you feel you haven't made sufficient progress.  Continue keeping potatoes, rice, noodles, etc off the menu.
  
  Weeks 6-24
  After about 6 weeks you will find that the morning and bedtime readings are nearly equal.  At some point the morning reading will be lower than the bedtime reading and this is an important milestone.   It means you have made a lot of progress and that you are controlling your sugar levels within acceptable limits.    But you don't want to stop now because there is much more progress to be had.   By the end of week 20-24 your morning reading will be ~5-10 points lower than the night time reading.  When you reach this milestone your diabetes will be undetectable.  You will find that you can go out and eat a bucket of fries without increasing your blood sugar above normal levels.  Of course if you do this all the time you will end up where you are now.   So during weeks 6-24 things should start to get easier for you.  You should be able to eat at normal times, occasionally have some of those nasty carb bombs, and not have to measure quite as often as before.
  
  Weeks 24+
  If you made it this far the only thing that can screw you up is that you can loose focus because you are doing so well and the measuring and the dieting and etc seems to become unnecessary.  So then you don't pay attention because it doesn;t seem to be necessary and then all of a sudden you fall back into your old ways and it sneaks back up on you.   
  
  Medication
  You can probably do all of this without medication.  I did easily.  If you and your doctor decide to help this along with drugs discuss with him which drug he is recommending and how it works.  Some drugs work by forcing insulin production and/or forcing the glucose into glycogen storage.   Other drugs work by preventing the liver from producing glucose and these are the ones I've had the best results from (I believe the one I have experience with is called something like metformin).
  
  ================
  I hope this is helpful to you.  Let us know how it turns out. 

[Emerald]

Nice to see someone who has a very solid understanding of what he's talking about

[Blackthorne]

Hey Buddy,

I'm not diabetic, but I have End Stage Renal Disease, which means my kidneys have failed and I'm on dialysis.  I can say that diabetes is managable, and it's not as bad as you could think.  Make sure you take care of it, if it is diabetes, or you could end up with failed kidneys and on dialysis, which sucks a major dog bone.

The small diabetes needles are WAY better than the 15 gauge needles I get every other day for treatment.  Two of them, into an A/V fistula (google it) in my arm.  Not fun!


Bt

This may seem a bit rude to ask but are you on the transplant lists? If so how long will you have to wait for a transplant?

Not rude at all - I like talking about my experiences with kidney failure.

Yeah, I am on a list for a transplantation.  It's a varied and complicated procedure, and there's really no set "time" in which I could get a kidney.  They need to match you, based on several factors including blood type and antigen matching, and when a kidney comes in the system in your area, you're matched - if you're a perfect match your chances of getting are the best - unless several people match.

It's a crapshoot.

I've had a transplant before from a living donor - my father.  Initially, it went well, but the kidney was damaged in an unreleated follow-up surgery and it never quite functioned well for the three years I had it.  It worked well enough to keep me off dialysis, but I had a host of other problems.

It failed, actually, a year ago this week and I returned to dialysis.  I've been on dialysis now for a year - it's a four hour treatment where they clean my blood and remove the excess fluid that builds up as my kidneys no longer filter out the water and toxins.  The procedure itself is relatively painless, but it can leave me exhausted, dizzy and groggy.  But you get by.   The illness, however, leaves me with a lot of time to work on games, heh, so it's good for all of us, eh?

Bt

[EldKatt]

Now here's what you should do, regarding your diet: Ask your doctor. He or she is supposed to actually know this stuff. Don't take some forum guy's word for it, because there are loads of conflicting ideas of what you're supposed to eat, some scientific and some nonsense, and unless you spend loads of time reading up on it, you have no way to know what is what.  And by reading up I mean real scientific literature, not some magazine or advice column, so it's not easy. Your doctor is supposed to have already spent loads of time reading up on it, so make it easy for yourself and go find the knowledge where it already exists.

No offence intended to anyone who has posted here, and I understand that giving informal advice about stuff is sort of the beauty of a forum, but these things are not simple, and doing something stupid can have pretty bad effects (particularly if you're diabetic). So please be aware of that.

[Domino]

I am officially a Diabetic as of Monday.

I called my doctor on Tuesday and was told to come right to the office because my blood sugar was way out of control.

My A1C score should be below 7, and mine was over 10, which means that I have high blood sugar.

I now have a glucose meter (and going on Metformin 500mg tablets) and have to watch what i eat. I have been pretty depressed lately, but i know things will get better.

Just wanted to let everyone know.

Shawn

[Blackthorne]

Keep your chin up, man.

Living with a disease does suck, but it doesn't change who you are.  It might require a little more daily effort - but in the end, you're going to be stronger for it.


Bt

[Eggie]

I'm sure you'll get used to any changes you have to make.
Until then, let the soothing, not-at-all-ripped-off-from-suggs-from-madness vocal genius of Pat Morris wash over you and be happy: http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DP/2007/04/098_1_Pat_Morris_-_Were_Diabetic.mp3

[Jack Sheehan]

Hey Buddy,

I'm not diabetic, but I have End Stage Renal Disease, which means my kidneys have failed and I'm on dialysis.  I can say that diabetes is managable, and it's not as bad as you could think.  Make sure you take care of it, if it is diabetes, or you could end up with failed kidneys and on dialysis, which sucks a major dog bone.

The small diabetes needles are WAY better than the 15 gauge needles I get every other day for treatment.  Two of them, into an A/V fistula (google it) in my arm.  Not fun!


Bt

This may seem a bit rude to ask but are you on the transplant lists? If so how long will you have to wait for a transplant?

Not rude at all - I like talking about my experiences with kidney failure.

Yeah, I am on a list for a transplantation.  It's a varied and complicated procedure, and there's really no set "time" in which I could get a kidney.  They need to match you, based on several factors including blood type and antigen matching, and when a kidney comes in the system in your area, you're matched - if you're a perfect match your chances of getting are the best - unless several people match.

It's a crapshoot.

I've had a transplant before from a living donor - my father.  Initially, it went well, but the kidney was damaged in an unreleated follow-up surgery and it never quite functioned well for the three years I had it.  It worked well enough to keep me off dialysis, but I had a host of other problems.

It failed, actually, a year ago this week and I returned to dialysis.  I've been on dialysis now for a year - it's a four hour treatment where they clean my blood and remove the excess fluid that builds up as my kidneys no longer filter out the water and toxins.  The procedure itself is relatively painless, but it can leave me exhausted, dizzy and groggy.  But you get by.   The illness, however, leaves me with a lot of time to work on games, heh, so it's good for all of us, eh?

Bt

Man, you certainly deal with it well, good luck.

[Domino]

I hope things go well with you Blackthorne.  I thought Diabetes is bad, but what you are going through I would not wish on my worst enemy.

Wishing you the best,
Shawn

edit: Eggie, that song is great. It is stuck in my head now. 

[EasyChairGameMan]

Shawn-

     Finding out about your diabetes was definitely a shock, but I believe it is a blessing in disguise. I think this diagnosis will provide you with some of the motivation you need to make changes in you lifestyle.

     This is not a death sentence. It is just something in your life that you must make adjustments for, and manage it. Much like life is in general.

      Watch what you eat and drink. Get some exercise (anything is a start). Give yourself some goals, and stick to them.

      Most important thing.....Never Give Up!

Your Friend, Chris

[Domino]

It is not easy to take care of a Diabetic cat and myself!! This really sucks.

I check my blood sugar and it goes from 122 to 250 for no reason.

I get a nice 122 on saturday to being 270 today. I don't understand.

I just can't wait to go blind. I am starting to not care anymore.

[ThreeOhFour]

Shawn,

I am sad that you have diabetes and that you are perhaps depressed by it.

I hope that you will not have too much trouble staying positive and dealing with it, keeping healthy and enjoying life.

Good luck and best wishes.