Posts Tagged ‘Type 1 Diabetes’

Death By Frosted Flakes

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

I told my wife the other day that if I ever got diagnosed with some nasty disease and only had a day to live, I’d take myself out with Frosted flakes and half and half. (Actually, I said I’d used heavy whipping cream, but I tried it the other day, and it was so thick it was hard to eat… LOL) That said, I’m just kidding. But, man Frosted flakes are good…

The reason I’m rambling on about this is because I had a bowl of them the other day, for the first time in like 30 years, and dang they were good. But, they jacked my blood sugar through the roof in about 2 seconds flat. Since I’m sure that this happens to other diabetics from time to time, I’m going to share a little secret with you on how to get your blood sugars down ASAP.

What I do when my blood sugar gets super high, is to take my insulin in the my shoulder, high up and on the inside in the tender skin by my chest. Then, once the insulin is in, rub it really hard for a full minute. Make the spot hurt and make it hot with friction. I can make my blood sugar drop by 150-200 points in an hour if I need to. (Luckily that doesn’t happen too often, but it does happen to all of us from time to time, so this is just a heads up so you know what to try…)

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Posted in Blood Sugar | No Comments »

Type 1 Diabetes Rap Song

Monday, January 11th, 2010

This is a pretty good little rap video about diabetes. It actually has lots of good information in it.

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what happens to a type 1 diabetic if they dont take insulin for 1 week?

Monday, November 16th, 2009

OK, that question keeps showing up in my log files for this site, so I’m going to answer it because it scares the hell out of me that anyone would be asking it. The answer is: If a type 1 diabetic doesn’t take his or her insulin for a week, then they will die. As a matter of fact, they will die way before the week is up. A type 1 diabetic who doesn’t take their insulin will die after just a day or three, especially if they eat more than just protein and fat. If they eat carbs, they’re going to be dead even quicker.

While you’d think that a type 1 diabetic could last awhile if they didn’t eat anything, or just ate meat and fat, that’s just not true. A type 1 diabetic, just like everyone else, needs insulin to move the sugar in the body into the cells so that your brain and muscles can work. So, even if you’re not eating anything, you still need insulin so that your cells can use the energy that your body provides from fat stores. For example; I need 60 units of insulin a day just to keep my body working, and that’s just my basil rate, I need more if I eat anything.

On the first day that the diabetic doesn’t have insulin, he or she is going to feel nauseous, sweating and have a really bad headache. The headache is from their blood getting thicker and thicker. It will get so thick that it will start popping the smaller blood vessels in the head and eyes. After their blood sugar gets over 600, they will start going into a coma, and if they don’t receive treatment quickly, they will experience brain death from lack of nutrients and oxygen, followed by clinical death. All of this can happen in a day, or just a few hours, depending on the diabetic and how brittle they are and how many carbs they had to eat.

All I can tell you is that if you’re a diabetic, make sure you keep a couple weeks worth of insulin around at all times, and ALWAYS take your blood glucose and insulin kit with you wherever you go. Something as simple as forgetting your insulin kit when having lunch with a friend, then having a flat tire on the way home and forgetting your cell phone, could kill you.

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Posted in Insulin Information | 3 Comments »

Free Insulin

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Novo has a form that you and your Doctor can fill out to see if you can get free insulin:
Novo Free Insulin Form

OK, this doesn’t really count, but Lantis is offering a free travel kit for your insulin…

Diabetes Supply Company is offering a free meter

I’ll list some actual insulin links when i find some…

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Insulin Prescriptions

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Here’s a question for all of you type 1 diabetics out there. When do type 1 diabetics get to quit taking insulin? I bet you didn’t know there was a time, I bet you thought that you would have to take insulin until the day you died, or at least up until a couple of days before you died. Guess what? You’re right, as a type 1 diabetic, if you don’t take your insulin, you will go into a diabetic coma and die.

I mention these facts because the people at my stupid medical insurance company don’t know that, and niether does my Doctor. When my Doctor writes my prescription for insulin, it’s only good for a year, and if I don’t go back and get it redone, my pharmacy won’t give me any insulin, and even if they did, my insurance company won’t pay for it. At over $100 per bottle, I sure as heck don’t want to have to pay for it out of my own pocket… especially since I already pay $18,000.00 per year for medical insurance for a family of 5.

On that note, I think I’m going to go see if I can find a coupon or offer or something for a bottle of free insulin…. I’m sure at the kind of money that Lilly and whatever that other company is… Novo I think, make off a bottle of insulin, they’re willing to give away a free bottle to pull you away from their competitor.

Drop by in the next day or so if you want to see if I found any diabetic freebies.

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Posted in Insulin Information | 1 Comment »

Glycobiology and Glyconutrition’s Roll In Type 1 Diabetes

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

There is a really interesting article at Ezinearticles.com that was written by a CardioVascular surgeon named Dr. Robert Gamble. Here’s a little piece of the article:

“Glyconutrition is the nutritional provision which provides the body with healthy CELLULAR COMMUNICATION. In other words, for diabetes, this means less “friendly fire.”

A study published in the 1997 issue of the Proceedings of the Fisher Institute for Medical Research showed people with type 1 diabetes who were given glyconutrients “…reported a dramatic improvement in their health, including a decrease in vision problems, better wound hearing, less infections, and lower blood pressure.” (Miracle Sugars, by Rita Elkins, M.H., Woodland Publishing, p. 26 -Excellent quick reference incidentally!)

Remember, both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are auto-immune conditions. Read carefully, this next statement by medical researcher, Dr. Neecie Moore:

“Glycobiology has achieved critical breakthroughs in the medical field, primarily by addressing what could be the greatest plague in health care today — auto-immune diseases. Multiple sclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, Crohn’s disease and colitis are just a few of these diseases.”

Research on glyconutrition is growing wonderfully. For example, the Ophthalmology Department of Harvard University in 1995 reported that one of the glyconutrients (mannose) can be an energy source for diabetes (instead of the damaging glucose), providing energy without risk of eyesight damage. (Miracle Sugars, p.27).”

go to EzineArticles.com to read the whole article on Glycobiology and Glyconutrition.

Head over to Wikipedia.com to get more information on Glycobiology.

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Posted in Type 1 Diabetes | No Comments »

Types of Insulin Delivery

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

This is a nice little animated video of the 4 types of insulin delivery systems. The systems are syringe, pen, jet and insulin pump. The video shows an example of each and then gives a short description of how they work.

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Diabetic Diets

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

According to Medline Plus, a diabetic diet should consist of 50%-60% complex carbs, no more than 30% fat and 10%-20% protein. (Medline’s Diabetic Diet PDF format) Of course, they are insane and are trying to kill all the Type 1 diabetics in the world….

OK, their diet might work for some people, but it doesn’t work for me. I stay away from all grains and products made with grain, like breads and pastas, because they just wreak havoc with my blood sugar control. To me, a carb is a carb. Just because a carb is complex, and takes a little longer to turn into sugar in my system, it will eventually turn into sugar. And, as a sugar, I’m going to have to take the insulin to cover it.

I eat all the protien, salad and vegetables I can hold, and you’ve got to remember, big fat root tubers don’t count as vegetable in my book. The big fat root tubers turn into starch, which is just another word for sugar. But, you can fill up on stuff like cabbage, broccoli, cellery and any of the other types of vegetables that have more fiber and water in them than carbs.

You can sort of do the same thing with fruits, but to a limited degree, as there’s a lot less to choose from that are low in carbs. With fruits, I usually just eat mellons and berries, since they tend to have a higher water content and lower carb content that fruits like apples and oranges.

The bottom line is that you are trying to keep a constant, healthy, blood sugar level, and the best way to do that is to eat less carbs. Lots of dieticians will disagree with me, since to them, they can just tell you to take so many units of insulin per carb, and if you count carbs correctly, your blood glucose levels will stay where they’re supposed to, but they are wrong.

The reason they are wrong, is because foods degrade and release their sugar content at different rates. The more foods you eat that have a carb content, the less blood sugar control you will have. If I eat rice or potatoes, it’s just like pouring sugar into my veins, and my Humalog can’t keep up.  And the same thing happens with whole grain products, but it doesn’t happen for hours. The bottom line is that you are going to get more highs and lows. at different times, the more carbs you add to your meals.

The best way I’ve found to control my blood sugars is to eat the same amount of carbs at every meal. I try to eat 40 carbs per meal, which needs 10 units of Humalog to maintain. Sure, I’m mixing different types of carbs in there, but since I’m not eating the 150 carbs that the dietician’s say I should be eating, I have a much lower high and low range to worry about.

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Posted in Diabetic Meals | 2 Comments »