Finding Balance in an Unbalanced World of Diabetes Support and Education

Nature often plays a delicate balance,
like these two bugs holding on against
the wind, behind these delicate, white
blooms.  It's a rainy, cold, and wet
 day, in Iowa.  Fall is just around
the corner. (September 11, 2008)

Doctors at the International Council for Truth in Medicine are revealing the truth about diabetes that has been suppressed for over 21 years.

Last year they helped over 17,542 type 2 diabetics end the need for prescription drugs, insulin injections and blood sugar monitoring.

This year they're on track to help over 30,000.

In just a few weeks, 96% of their patients are able to stop ALL diabetes medication and insulin injections.

No more neuropathy pain, pricking your finger, or the need for expensive medication.

Learn about this groundbreaking new research here: Doctors Reversed Diabetes in Three Weeks.

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One of the biggest challenges, when helping newly diagnosed persons with diabetes, is finding balance in the information provided. Helping create a positive environment, which encourages a person to learn the scope of the disease and its complications, but still keeping their heads above water. No matter the diabetes community -- this is a struggle that I have found almost everywhere. Even in my own diabetes groups.

Whenever I share any information, my hope is for you, the patient, to be able to make your OWN decisions -- and not make MY decisions as yours. I have this crazy idea that, when empowered with basic information, people will tailor their diabetes regimes to their own circumstances, and find balance. That I don't need to tell anyone what to do, and that since this is diabetes we're talking about, what has worked for me... will definitely, and not necessarily, work for you.

The problem is that diabetes is a dick. Diabetes doesn't play fair, and it doesn't give two shits about our feelings. It doesn't. It doesn't care that the news of the things it can do, can scare us, nor does it politely pass us over when we decide to close our eyes against it. So... sometimes, this harsh bit of reality might lead people to behave in one of two ways: either by becoming inflexible with their ideas of control, or by becoming completely lax in their control. Neither of these two ideas is good, even if one of them has much, much better numbers.

Inflexible Control

There's nothing wrong with having tight control. In fact, international diabetic guidelines call for patients with diabetes to aim for postprandial (after meal) numbers which are less than 140 mg/dL at 2 hours. For some time, I belonged to some communities with large numbers of internationals (people in any number of countries, outside the United States) -- and they consistently made their goals to be 140 or less, and never once did I ever see anyone complain about that, or try justify a much higher goal, or A1C, without some serious reasoning behind it. Sure, no one's perfect... but it IS the number they shoot for, so, it is the NORM for the world to shoot for those numbers This is, also, a number which even the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists endorses. The American Diabetes Association is pretty much alone in their call for persons with diabetes to keep postprandial numbers at less than 180 mg/dL (but even they have this caveat under their goal guidelines: "More or less stringent glycemic goals may be appropriate for each individual.") 

The fact is that the LIKELIHOOD for damage and/or complications caused by high blood sugar increases, in a correlated manner, the higher the blood glucose level is... and that correlation begins at 140 mg/dL. That's really scary. Not only that, but the risk for heart attacks increases by leaps and bounds the higher our A1Cs are. This is basically truth. This is not my opinion... it's not my way of calling people to go eat nothing but twigs all day, nor raw dieting, etc. IT IS THE UNVARNISHED TRUTH. 

The problem is... some people use that truth to assume that everyone must tackle their diabetes in the same way. In fact, some persons are so disturbed by the potential damage of diabetes, that they push for normal, non diabetic numbers, near <90 mg/dL fasting, and <120 mg/dL postprandial. If one can pull that off, that's great. I do it all the time, and I shoot for it... But it's really not something that is ideal for everyone, nor should we expect everyone to easily overcome what we can. We are not all the same. And in fact, the likelihood for complications is also, very strongly determined by genetics. One can have great control, AND STILL GET COMPLICATIONS! So, if someone worked super hard to attain control (out of sheer fear), and they still got complications... what kind of setup for disappointment are we creating? Nothing is truly a guarantee. We do the best we can, and it doesn't really help to overfocus on the axe in the ceiling. 

So here, you get people who may be well intentioned, and caring, and wanting to help others achieve control, pushing things like raw dieting, alkaline dieting, paleo dieting, and Atkins or Bernstein dieting, etc. This is not a basic truth a person with diabetes needs to learn. One's chosen diet plan is NOT a basic truth a person with diabetes needs to learn. 

Persons with diabetes need to learn: 

• What diabetes is -- a condition in which the body can't use glucose adequately, because the pancreas has either stopped producing enough insulin (which can be fatal), or has lost sensitivity to it (or sometimes both); 
• What glucose is -- a type of sugar in which our bodies convert food, to use as fuel for energy. It is NOT the same as table sugar, nor is it exclusively derived from sweets. The body converts ALL foods we eat, from one degree to another, into glucose. 90-100% of carbohydrates, 50% of proteins, and around 10% of fats get converted into glucose. Table sugar and sweets are just another carbohydrate;
• What a glucose meter is -- a tool which allows us to measure our blood glucose, and how it is affected by the foods we eat (mostly the carbohydrates we eat), exercise, illness, medication, stress, temperature changes, hormonal changes, etc; 
• What carbohydrate counting is -- a total, daily, number of carbohydrates we allow ourselves in our diets, in order to control blood glucose levels. We can adjust it in our meals (cut back on it, or add more) based on our glucose meter readings, and divide them up through the day, between three meals, and snacks. We are the most insulin resistant in the mornings, and the most receptive in the afternoons; 
• What insulin is -- a hormone, which under normal circumstances, is produced by the body in order to help the body's cells and muscle tissues uptake glucose. Insulin takes up glucose found in our blood streams and uses some for immediate energy use, some for energy reserves (like when we need to wake up in the mornings), and some for storing as fat, etc. Insulin itself does not make one gain weight; overeating, and particularly overeating too many carbohydrates, can make one gain weight, because they a.) put too much glucose in the system, and in persons with type 2 diabetes, b.) may lead to too much insulin in the bloodstream;
• What insulin resistance is -- insulin resistance is a condition in which the body's cells are not able to bind with insulin, effectively, which would have allowed the entrance of glucose into cells for energy use. The body then finds itself with excess glucose floating around, so then the pancreas produces more insulin to try to take care of the matter. If the excess glucose is not taken care of, again, the pancreas will keep producing insulin. This creates a condition known as hyperinsulinemia -- or excess insulin in the blood stream, which can lead to weight gain, as a lot of that excess insulin tries to manage the situation best by storing that excess glucose as fat. One of insulin's functions as a hormone is to store glucose as fat, for potential energy stores. 
• What the treatment alternatives are -- which can run the gamut from diet and exercise, to diet and exercise + oral medications, to diet and exercise + oral medications + insulin, to diet and exercise + insulin... but ALWAYS diet and exercise is a requirement for ALL types of diabetics. No exceptions.