Do you know what is a great motivator for dieting? Possibility of blindness. Or your fingers may become permanently paralyzed. It focuses your mind beautifully.
Or maybe it's just me. I immediately came up with the idea that diabetes (which I wrote about developing on Monday) means that the body can't process insulin properly, and sugar overloads the bloodstream and rots the plumbing. I did. I did everything I was told, including getting blood tests, seeing doctors, taking medication, and eliminating sugar and carbs from my diet.
But maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm an exception. How many people with diabetes do what they are supposed to do after being diagnosed?
“It's a minority,” says Dr. Anthony J. Pick, an endocrinologist at Northwestern Medicine. “There's a lot of inertia in people who have had poorly controlled diabetes for years. Many suffer because it's a chronic disease and a lifestyle issue.”
Nearly half the country is overweight, and diabetes is soaring. One-third of American adults are pre-diabetic. 10% have this disease.
“It's probably getting worse,” Dr. Pick said. “When you look at the level of diabetes care, it's pretty depressing. It's a huge public health problem.”
Diabetes doesn't get the attention it deserves, especially considering all the silly things we're obsessed with, like shark attacks and asteroid strikes.
“There's a lack of awareness,” agreed Dr. Pick. “Diabetes is at the forefront of chronic, deteriorating lifestyle-related diseases such as fatty liver disease and sleep apnea syndrome. The number one cause of death is cardiovascular disease, and diabetes affects this.”
Dr. Anthony J. Pick is an endocrinologist at Northwestern Medicine. There is a critical shortage of endocrinologists, and general practitioners need the support of diabetes educators to monitor treatment. New patients can wait up to a year to get an appointment to see Dr. Pick.
Photo courtesy of Northwestern Medicine
Diabetes occurs in specific populations, with blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans having higher rates of diabetes.
“The prevalence of diabetes among Pima Indians is 90 percent,” Dr. Pick said. “The numbers are staggering in certain populations.”
The jury is still out, but it doesn't seem like bad lifestyle habits were the culprit in my case. Obesity, lack of exercise, smoking etc. (Type 2), but because the body is attacking the pancreas (Type 1). Perhaps other factors that medical science has yet to pinpoint set off the genetic alarm clock. Dr. Pick said perhaps even the coronavirus could play a role.
While men like me see the diagnosis as a wake-up call, many others treat it as just a vague danger to be ignored.
“It seems to be ignored,” Dr. Pick said. “Every day, there is a lack of respect and awareness of how dangerous diabetes is.”
Oddly enough, I was lucky. Because my diabetes was showing obvious and hard-to-ignore symptoms of thirst. My doctor's first approach, taking metformin and seeing me a month later, did not resolve the problem. .
I could have been more patient with the metformin, but my fingers were also tingling (diabetes causes neuropathy) and I needed them to type. A week later it came back screaming, “This doesn't work!”
OK, he said, and hooked me up to a continuous blood monitor, a Dexcom G7, a high-tech device I never could have imagined. The applicator, which is about the size of the top of a shaving cream can, is pressed against the back of your arm and attaches a monitor about the size of a quarter. The monitor talks to your phone and gives you another app to check. G-mail. Instagram. Blood sugar level.
Dex added to the anxiety without offering solutions. One night I had a bowl of shredded wheat and blueberries for dinner and thought to myself, “Low in carbs!” — and my blood peaked at 400. Patients sometimes need to be listened to, and sometimes they need to advocate for themselves. I ran back to the doctor and begged him to put me on insulin.
The problem with insulin is that it cannot be taken as a pill. You have to inject it. This may seem unpleasant, but it's surprisingly easy. You will receive a pen containing approximately 15 doses. Just screw in a disposable needle, grab a handful of waist fat, push it in, press a button, and you're ready to go. It doesn't hurt.
There are others. I will conclude this article on Friday. We'd like to spotlight the many readers who have written in with advice and opinions. Thank you everyone. This is a concerned community whose voice deserves to be heard.
I don't want to drive away non-diabetic readers who still come here. We know that no one wants to hear a sick person go on and on about their illness. But with tens of millions of Americans living with diabetes, with no full-time medical writers to cover the issue, and with how many people have managed to write a three-part series about dog care in 2021? Given what happened, I'll have to risk coming back to this topic again on Friday.