It's More Than About Beating Diabetes

I've already changed my profile tagline in several places to something like “it’s more than about beating diabetes”. The word holistic seems inadequate to describe the profound integration my experiment has illuminated for me. It’s a question of seeing the big picture. When racing sailboats you’re taught to get your head out of the boat and look around. It’s hard, because the many adjustments and controls near at hand seem to demand attention. But even if everything is trimmed perfectly, if you’re not headed at the mark, all your micro-fidgeting is for naught.

I’m convinced that western medicine is full of micro-fidgeters. Blinders and magnifying glasses strapped on, the questions that legions of mice are sacrificed to solve are miniscule (possibly meaningless) pieces of the big picture. Without more of an eastern stepped-back, whole systems view, they’ll never connect the parts. It’s no wonder we see so many unintended consequences for drugs targeted at discrete processes. Nothing is discrete.

An entire blog post of mine might pass without mention of Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA). What started for me as a typically western search for a solution to this individual disease yielded not a pill to be taken and cure resulting by morning, but a real cure all elixir. None of the ingredients are unheard of, although a few, like self-accountability and patience are hard to come by.

photo by Leo-Seta

Finding and maintaining balance is the root purpose of each and every goal I might choose to list on a given day. It’s all so interconnected that it’s difficult to create a linear string of words to diagram it. Writing about it is like uncovering a tiny section of an ancient wall on an archeological dig and not knowing which way to follow it to get to the treasure chamber. Of course, eventually you figure out that either way will get you there.

Here’s one list of cascading challenges/opportunities for achieving/maintaining mind/body balance and the resulting good health:

1. keep the cupboard and fridge stocked with organic, unprocessed food

2. find a way to make a living that enables #1

3. avoid the kind of work requiring body-killing stress but still satisfies #2 and #1

4. dedicate a generous slice of each day to physical and creative activity while still solving #3, #2, and #1

5. discover an infinite number of moments in which to be present with wife, kids, and any other human whose path I cross, unfettered by worries of failing #4 through #1.

List small victories? Like writing every day for a month on topic and on deadline? Or launching the boat for the season, knowing that just the thought of it swinging on its mooring is the best stress pill available? Or having a 30 and 90-day average fasting blood sugar of 115? Or staying cool and balanced, even though laid off and in uncharted waters? Or this morning, having the presence of mind to watch the thermal-riding hawk for uncounted moments?

It all matters, but not in the proportions you may first assign. Remember the drinking bird toy that repeatedly dipped its head? Our lives are an endless cycle of head-drooping down to focus on one spot of ground followed by the wakeup head-shaking return to the long view where we get back in our lane and spot the next turn.

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Refusing The Needle: A Diabetic’s Natural Journey To Kick-Ass Health by Russell Stamets

ebook available for all devices at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145608

and for kindle at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007P6L5C4

tags: type 1, type 2, autoimmune, diabetes, lada, natural, alternative, diet, supplements, acupuncture, meditation, lifestyle, HAWMC