Twelve reasons you do not want diabetes

The Difference between Type I and Type II Diabetes

There are two kinds of Diabetes. Type I usually happens at a childhood age and is by definition when the pancreas stops producing insulin, a hormone necessary to process sugar in our cells. Type II is also called Adult Onset diabetes because it commonly occurs as we get older. It is probably intuitive to you that as we age, we continue to consume the same amount of food that we did when we were younger but are not as physically active as we were, in the good old days.

This article is for people who have or are susceptible to having type II diabetes. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention,69.0% of American adults age 20 years and over are overweight and half of them, 35.1% are obese.

The rule for whether or not you have diabetes is: your fasting blood glucose level is greater than 120 and your hemoglobin A1C is greater than 6. There are a couple of other tell-tale signs. You know if you are overweight if your favorite clothes no longer fit; or you can't squeeze into those skin tight jeans you wore in high school anymore. If you want to know if you have or are at risk for having diabetes, you can find diabetes test kits at your local pharmacy.

Glucose monitor kit

The First Reason

• For beginners, you may opt to use test strips that can tell if you are spilling sugar in your urine. (The word diabetes was first recorded in 1425, and in 1675, the Greek Mellitus, “like honey,” was added, to reflect the sweet smell and taste of the patient's urine). Once you have a doctor's confirmation that you have it, you will join the club of diabetics who must poke their fingers to get a glucose sample for testing. And that's the first reason you don't want to have diabetes. Many people who have been diagnosed with diabetes refuse to test their glucose on a daily basis and risk losing control of it.

Metformin - Oral medication for diabetes

The Second Reason

• Controlling diabetes should be of the utmost importance to you, but if you're like I was, it probably isn't. If you're paying attention, you will know you are consuming too many calories and are not physically active enough to burn even fewer calories. You can assume that this imbalance is going to result in damage to your health and your life. In order to remain on this planet as long as you can, you must consume less food, eat a healthy diet and exercise daily. If you don't, your chances of getting diabetes are greater. Some lucky people are not susceptible to gaining weight regardless of how much they eat, bless their souls. If you are one of them, be thankful. Most of us are not.

Once you have been diagnosed with diabetes, your doctor will prescribe an oral medication you will be taking daily. If your lab work reveals your blood sugar readings are below 200 before starting the medication you may have avoided the hassle of injecting insulin into your stomach on a daily basis. This would be the second reason you do not want to have diabetes. After many years, I don't mind the injections but would rather I did not have to take them.

Insulin and syringes

The Third Reason

• When you are prescribed insulin, it's because you are insulin resistant and/or your pancreas is not producing enough insulin to allow your cells to get rid of the sugar. Your fasting glucose readings should be between 70 and 120 on your glucose monitor. If they are above 150 an hour after you have consumed a meal, you are beginning down the long road of complications. After several years of cruising over 150 to 180, the effects of the sugar in your blood cells will deteriorate your blood vessels, major organs, and your nervous system. This would be the third reason you do not want to have diabetes.

Medications - The Fourth Reason

• Metformin is the oral medication commonly prescribed for type II diabetes. It has a few unpleasant side-effects including vomiting and diarrhea. It took me a considerable amount of time to adjust to Metformin. Some people develop lactic acidosis while taking metformin and this can be fatal. If your doctor prescribes insulin, you will most likely take both the oral medication as well as insulin injections. Having to budget for medications is something we have to do when we are diagnosed with this chronic illness. This would be the fourth reason you don't want to have it.

Vision Loss - Diabetic Retinopathy

• As a result of not getting on top of my illness as soon as I realized, I had it was vision deterioration. Actually, I was prescribed glasses for seeing at a distance better before I knew what had caused the problem. My vision had been perfect until I reached the age of 38. When I asked the doctor why I needed glasses now he said, "It's probably because you work in front of a computer all day long." That wasn't the reason. The reason was I was pre- if not already full-blown diabetic.

I didn't know I was diabetic until about a year and a half later when I experienced flu-like symptoms that didn't go away after a week. My doctor tested my urine and proclaimed "You're spilling sugar." And so began my long trip down a bad road. It seemed every time I went to see the eye doctor my vision changed and I needed new glasses. I kidded myself thinking it was just from getting older. After too many visits to the ophthalmologist, I was informed I needed laser surgery to stop the leaking blood vessels in the wall on the back of my eyes. This was the first stage of Diabetic Retinopathy.

I had 10 laser surgery treatments over a two year period and it seemed to help, although my night vision was by this time impaired. Those treatments were, for the most part, painless. About a year later I experienced bleeding into my vitreous and could see a spider web in my right eye (the good one). The doctor told me I needed to have the blood siphoned out of the vitreous so I could see unobstructed.

The vitreous is a clear fluid that fills the eye and in order to clear it out, the doctor had to operate on my right eye. Using a small needle he punctured the eye and vacuumed out the blood while I was under anesthesia. This time, recovery was slow and it was very painful. While performing the operation the doctor also did a considerable amount of laser treatment to the retina resulting in loss of peripheral vision on the right side. This would be the fifth reason you do not want to have diabetes.

I have subsequently seen the ophthalmologist many times and had several Florizine angiograms where a dye is injected into your vein and the doctor or nurse takes photos of the back of your eye as the dye flows into the arteries. I have an edema in my left eye and have had Avastin (a cancer drug) injected into my eye while fully awake. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Weight Gain - The Sixth Reason

• One of the side effects of insulin is weight gain. When I started insulin I weighed 240 lbs and I was overweight and a member of weight watchers. I shot up to 280 quickly because I was consuming the same amount of food, not exercising enough and injecting insulin three times a day. So, to be blunt, you are fat already and the medicine is going to make you fatter. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this would be the sixth reason you do not want to have diabetes.

Skin Problems

• One of the problems that diabetics share is skin problems and sores that won't heal. The first oral medication I took for diabetes also caused me to get sunburned when I stayed outside for more than 20 minutes. Keeping up with three growing children meant being in the sun for hours at a time and the results were not surprising. The bumps and bruises we all get were bothersome for me because they did not heal, for years.

Nerve Damage - Neuropathy

• One of the insidious effects of diabetes is the damage it does to one's nervous system. The first thing you notice is the loss of feeling in your fingers, toes, feet and other parts of your body. At first, this is tolerable but over time the loss of feeling gets worse and finally you experience shooting pains in your feet, toes, legs, fingers, hands, arms, shoulders etc. Not just a little pain either. Lots of pain that does not subside quickly. Tylenol helps but won't cure it. Like all the other effects, you can't roll back the clock on the effects of diabetes. Your vision will not improve, your nerve damage can't be undone, your kidneys are not as good as they were; the list goes on and on.

Fruit and vegetables

The Seventh Reason - Revoked Driving Privileges

• One of the rudest awakenings happens when the department of motor vehicles requires you to have your doctor complete a health diagnosis on you for their records. If your A1C is above the normal range, the DMV will revoke your driver's license and you will have to wait until the doctor says your diabetes is "under control" before you can get your driving privileges back. That means you will have to take a written and driver's test again to prove you are qualified to drive. This would be the seventh reason you do not want to have diabetes.

  The Eighth Reason - Organ Damage

• Along the journey, you will notice the deterioration of several major organs in your body. The kidneys, the heart, the liver, the lungs, and almost everything else is damaged from diabetes. Your medications will be increased to combat the deterioration. Your kidneys play an important part in processing what you consume, so does the liver, especially if you consume alcohol. Alcohol will not be as fun as it once was when you have diabetes because the sugar in the alcohol will make you sick. Just headaches at first then worse. This could be the eighth reason you don't want to have diabetes but it depends on how important drinking is to you.

Depression

• One of the worst illnesses that comes with chronic disease is depression. Depression is a gigantic bummer. Depression will ruin what life you have left until it takes your life. I won't say you are going to get major depression like I did but doesn't having a disease like diabetes sound depressing? This would be the eighth reason you don't want diabetes.

The Ninth Reason - Diminished Life Expectancy

• You might guess that if you have all these other maladies, your life is shortened by a significant factor. People who are overweight or obese are prone to heart disease and stroke.

Erectile Dysfunction

• If you are a man, you are wrecking your ability to attain an erection by contracting diabetes. There are things you can do to help a little but your sex life will be little to none.

Loss of Digits and Limbs

• Given enough time and neglect, the effects of neuropathy will result in losing fingers, toes, and legs. This is reason nine you don't want to have diabetes.

The Tenth Reason - Dialysis

• When your kidneys give out, you will have to visit the hospital three times a week and get hooked up to a dialysis machine to do what the kidneys normally do. If you think poking your fingers or taking injections is bad wait till you have to do this to continue living. You may, on the other hand, have a kidney transplant if you can afford one and then you will have restored your kidney function. This is reason ten why you do not want to have diabetes.

The Eleventh Reason - Doctor Bills

• All these medical procedures and medications you will be taking are not free. Unless you are very well to do, this is going to be a financial setback and reason eleven why you don't want diabetes.

The Twelfth Reason - Disease and Death

• Every illness you get from the common cold to flu, to cuts and scrapes will take longer to heal and recover from. You will continue to have more problems with your health and more procedures you really don't want to have until you succumb to the final hours of your life. Reason twelve why you do not want to have diabetes.

Conclusion

Wanting not to end on such a final note, I want to remind you to get your weight back to a normal range for a person your gender, age, and height. Stop living to eat and start eating to live. If you enjoy eating and food, this will require a lifestyle change. The really hard choices in life are the lifestyle changes.

• Find out more about what you eat. Learn how to read the labels. Reduce the calories you take in. Increase the fiber and protein in your daily meals. To make it simple, eat more fruit and vegetables every day. Eat more vegetables than you think you need because you are wrong in what you think.

• Cut out sugar altogether. It is in everything you consume so avoid the things you know are full of it. Food makers sneak it in even in the healthy foods you eat. The same with salt or sodium. Eat more fish and white meat and cut back on red meat because you will be reducing the amount of fat you consume. Reduce the carbohydrates you eat because your body converts carbohydrates to sugar.

•  Eat fewer snacks if you can and smarter snacks if you can't. Chips and anything made with white flour are killing you because your body converts it to sugar. Switch to 100% whole wheat where ever you can. Pasta, noodles, bread, crackers, cookies, tortillas and any other carbohydrates you consume regularly. Drink more water and less alcohol. Get at least 8 hours of sleep every night.

•  Increasing the amount of fiber in your meals allows you to digest your food slower and get the benefit of the nutrients you need to be healthy. Fiber does not stay in your body but is flushed out and won't make you gain weight. Snacking on vegetables will satisfy the craving you may have for carbohydrates.

• Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, don't skip meals. Take at least a 15-minute walk twice a day or get your physical activity another way. Finally, drink at least 12 cups of water daily. You will become constipated if you don't and won't flush the food you can't digest out of your system.

Good luck staying out of the diabetics club!