Probably Need More Than 3

photo by puuikibeach

If our healthcare and insurance system wasn’t broken they would treat me like a king. I’m saving the system tens of thousands of dollars by controlling my Type1 LADA naturally without insulin or frequent testing. Not only is the rest of the country not having to subsidize me, but the incredible state of health my diet, activity, and stress reduction regimen has brought me too guarantees I won’t be burdening the system with chronic cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, or other related care any time soon.

What an if! Instead, the reality is, even though I’ve effectively beat this otherwise resource-sucking disease, I’m unable to get anything but wallet-killing high-risk pool insurance. If our insurance system rewarded hard choices, innovative success, and true across-the-board savings, it would cover my organic foods that have removed the toxins from my body and stopped the immune attack. It would pay for the acupuncture that helps keep me balanced and un-inflamed.

The most important (and unlikely) insurance coverage I could use wouldn’t be insurance at all. Our whole money grubbing economic system would be replaced. Physicians ould be rewarded for how FEW tests and drugs they prescribe, actually graded on the health of their patients. Our ideal system would reward individuals who find work/life balance and would subsidize us for finding productive stress free lifestyles. The savings from reduced old age chronic care would more than offset.

Oh well. We’re just dreaming, right? It just seems that without the conflicts of interest of merging insurance, Pharma, hospitals, and physicians, some of these people might feel free to do the right thing. The physician could be trusted to suggest the right individual care that might often mean less than more. Insurance would be free to want people 100% well, so their claims would shrink. Their motives are suspect when they own device, drug and other healthcare businesses. And Pharma? Are they capable of functioning in mankind’s best interest? As long as we economically reward them for creating chemical erections versus research on real life threats, it seems unlikely.

If physicians, the insurance industry, hospitals, and Pharma were doing the right thing, than perhaps patients could be trusted, encouraged, and supported when taking charge of their own health.


“This post is my May entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival.  If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2012/may-dsma-blog-carnival-2/“

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Refusing the Needle: A Diabetic’s Natural Journey to Kick-Ass Health , by Russell Stamets
Amazon(Kindle or paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007P6L5C4
Smashwords (all ereaders): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145608
russell.stamets blog: http://russellstamets.blogspot.com
twitter: @russellstamets

Today's Classified Ads

Today’s Classifieds – please pass along to anyone who might be interested

FOR SALE: Beautiful 4 BR, 2 bath Colorado ranch estate on 1.86 acres, rural, yet minutes from town. Lovingly upgraded over many years. It’s ready to happily raise another family. Be sure to sit on the deck under the silver maple and listen to the aspens. While tossing a horseshoe, pause to admire the Flatirons view. Sip your wine in the shade of a hundred trees, watching the kids in the sandbox, on the trampoline, or up in the tree house. If you’re looking for a home steeped in good energy, you’ll feel it here.

WANTED: A new home for a couple of long-time land-locked sailors ready to move aboard, a well-loved, center cockpit ketch over 40’. The sellers of this boat will be looking for us, a new pair of passionate caretakers for their long-time home vs. a quick buck. This flavorful boat will draw less than 6 feet, making her comfy in either the Chesapeake or Bahamas shallows we will explore. This boat will also be found either east coast or Florida, no further west than Texas, since a canal trip for a shakedown cruise to get her back to Annapolis is not our desire.

WANTED: Annapolis-area slip for a forty-something ketch. Price is probably more important than amenities. Walking distance to groceries. Also need nearby mooring for 22’ Pearson Ensign. Unused dock on your waterfront home? Want to help out a salty Colorado couple who are finally answering their call to the water?

FOR FREE FOR THE DUMP: the stress of another desk job for him; any more years for her in a broken school system where teachers aren’t allowed to teach; any chance of a soma-numb easy chair retirement for either one; truckloads of stuff we have no idea why we were keeping.

WANTED: Two livelihoods: freelance or contract work for him (a social media/tech savvy copywriting poet), something doable via wifi from either Annapolis or Marsh Harbor; for her, something fun and hourly in Annapolis, nothing to take home at night, flexible enough to leave for the Bahamas for a month in the coldest part of winter – what would you hire an ex-5^th grade teacher for?

NEEDED: A little luck. A few deep breaths. A moment to calm the flutter of worry for the kids. Continued good health. Every ounce of strength the resilient love emanating from a 26 year marriage provides.

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Have a tip or lead on any of the above? Please email firstname dot lastname at gmail (Sorry to be so cryptic, but email address get scraped from pages so easily these days. Or feel free to use the blog comments.)


Refusing the Needle: A Diabetic’s Natural Journey to Kick-Ass Health , by Russell Stamets
Amazon(Kindle or paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007P6L5C4
Smashwords (all ereaders): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145608
russell.stamets blog: http://russellstamets.blogspot.com
twitter: @russellstamets

The Picture of Health

This finger is rarely pricked. No insulin means control without obsession.

Turkey bacon, green onion, green chile, organic romaine lettuce, on a whole wheat tortilla. Clean and lean, this is part of how I’ve beat LADA.

No 24/7 insulin rigamarole means more time for Marley.

No pump or meter to beep during Maggie’s performance.

Omlette (without butter and cheese), with salsa, incredible flavanoid strawberries and carrots. Protein, fruit, and veggies are part of the bargain I made with my body.

Sailing is critical therapy for me. It’s the ultimate zen activity that balances my mind and keeps mountains of stress at bay.

Signature Rant

photo by procsilas

I know plenty of folks will do a bang up job describing all the misconceptions that the general public has about diabetes, so I think I’ll twist today’s prompt a little to look at misconceptions held by diabetics about diabetes. To be fair, what I’m asking well-informed, articulate diabetes bloggers to do is more about being open-minded. I can’t imagine how hard it would be, when “wolf” has been cried a thousand times, to still give a fair look at results as radical as mine. After all, “Type 1(LADA) pancreas’ just don’t come back to life after the honeymoon period.” It’s written in western medicine stone. And there’s no way in hell a natural solution with diet, supplements, activity and stress reduction could conceivably do it, right? And I suppose the world is full of liars and the delusional.

But here I am, insulin-free, kick-ass healthy proof that words like “irreversible” and “impossible” are used in error. I explain how I’ve done this and receive blank stares for a minute before the insulin-using listener turns back to the constant chit chat about what device to strap on next.

I’ll keep trying, but some days it’s all moving backward so fast I fear I’ll stumble and fall under the hooves of the stampede of even theType 2’s, for God’s sake, who are swayed now in droves by the pharma moneyed propaganda to unnecessarily use insulin. What a marketing coup that is. Just like politics I guess. The most moneyed message wins. Facts are meaningless. And no one is going to spend money to study or report on a free cure, no matter how many like me show that diet and stress are the key to the whole gamut of chronic, inflammatory diseases.

OK. That’s my trademark rant. How exactly do I think the DOC can remain openminded in the face of their decades of disappointments and money-skewed research?

Dunno.

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Refusing the Needle: A Diabetic’s Natural Journey to Kick-Ass Health , by Russell Stamets
Amazon(Kindle or paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007P6L5C4
Smashwords (all ereaders): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145608
russell.stamets blog: http://russellstamets.blogspot.com
twitter: @russellstamets

Congratulations! You Own The Patent

The perfect health tool would benefit not just diabetics but the entire gamut of chronic autoimmuune inflammatory disease. It would be organic, containing no batteries, wire, plastic, or metal. It would function by neutralizing all impulses to eat any processed food toxins, or poisons like sugar. Instead, it would make us feel like it was natural and more than worth the effort to eat lean, fresh, and organic. It would accomplish this leaving no residual craving, desire, guilt, or victimhood.

This tool would prevent or reverse malfunctions like immune system attacks on the pancreas not only by regulating diet; it would make regular 24/7 activity an imperative. It would actually make it a joy to keep moving, choosing stairs, standing vs. sitting, and walking, walking like your life depended on it.

The most important regulatory function of this free, custom fit, cure-all organic life tool is stress control. It will prevent job, relationship, and other choices that lead to damaging continuous fight of flight response. To allow us to handle the events that aren’t choices that might trigger autoimmune attacks, this survival tool will prompt the user to be a practitioner of meditation. It will make us open to acupuncture, yoga, and pursuit of the true mind/body experience.

This miracle device will run as long as you live, be readily available to every citizen on the planet, and subject to no recall. Upgrades are automatic. Free, extra, hidden functions are included, available for when you’re ready to unlock them. This tool, if trained and used wisely, will provide not only perfect health and long life, it will be your sole source of passion, joy, ecstasy, wonder, and enlightenment. Just read the instructions. Those functions are null and void if you misuse this organ for purposes of anger, self-hate, or anything damaging.

Although portable, this master control unit weighs several pounds. The only place it can be carried, protected, and hooked up properly, is inside your skull. The best news is, it’s already there. Dust it off and use it.

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Refusing the Needle: A Diabetic’s Natural Journey to Kick-Ass Health , by Russell Stamets

Amazon(Kindle or paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007P6L5C4
Barnes & Noble (Nook): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/refusing-the-needle-russell-stamets/1110361672?ean=2940014469739
Apple (ipad): search the itunes store for Russell Stamets
Smashwords (all ereaders): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145608

Speak No Evil (Dblogweek - Day 3)

photo by robertpaulyoung

I have got get better at keeping my mouth shut. I have to remember that some members of my family don’t discuss health issues. Even life threatening episodes tend to go unmentioned, or if discovered, minimized and dismissed. If someone offers up an innocuous tidbit, it’s a sign of something dire.

I, on the other hand, am doing this crazy public blog and book thing with my LADA, discussing, dissecting, evaluating, and pondering even the minutest details of diet, blood sugar fluctuations, and stress drivers.

So when I happen to mention that “my numbers are up a little...”  that’s all they hear. And by normal family standards, they adjust that sentence fragment to mean something like I’m running constant blood sugars of 800 and there were a couple of ER visits involved. They are hearing that alternate story ending in their heads and missing the much less exciting actual end of the comment, something like “...I’ve had couple of fasting 140’s mixed in with the normal 110’s, kind of expected during this stressful, period while laid off.”

It doesn’t help that maintaining the blog, social media presence and promoting the book is pretty much my job at this point, and how much do any of us tend to talk about our jobs? Yeah, too much. So not talking shop around family is definitely my choice for today’s “something to improve” prompt.

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Refusing the Needle: A Diabetic’s Natural Journey to Kick-Ass Health , by Russell Stamets

Amazon(Kindle or paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007P6L5C4
Barnes & Noble (Nook): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/refusing-the-needle-russell-stamets/1110361672?ean=2940014469739
Apple (ipad): search the itunes store for Russell Stamets
Smashwords (all ereaders): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145608

Twitter: @russellstamets

Paper & Ink

For those that still like a real page to turn, I’m pleased to announce that the paperback edition of Refusing the Needle: A Diabetic’s Natural Journey to Kick-Ass Health is now available through Amazon or Createspace.

In even the short month since publishing the digital version there’s been more in the news about the concerns, hunches, and practices I outline in the book. As the diabetes epidemic sweeps over us, there’s probably no such thing as too much coverage. And there’s no shortage of different angles on this story, like the troubling unexplained increase in the autoimmune varieties like Type 1 and LADA over the last couple of decades. It’s a real mystery, although I’ve placed my bet on the toxins in processed food suspect.

Three years ago at age 49 I was your typical all-American beer guzzling, pizza chomping, moderately stressed guy. Slim, and in great health (I thought). Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA) is also called Type 1.5, but the fact that it’s autoimmune and the insulin-producing pancreas is under attack makes it closer to the kid’s Type 1. It’s still widely misdiagnosed. People are walking around wondering why the usual Type 2 pills aren’t working. The only option currently offered for any Type 1 variety is insulin. Almost no money is spent researching solutions like what I came up with to avoid those shots in the stomach. Perhaps because you can’t patent the kind of diet, supplement, and stress reduction regimen that has worked for me. In any case, here’s some of what I found interesting in my research and self-experiment:

* Diabetes as a “spectrum” disease – traditional lines are blurred, T1’s have environmental triggers and T2’s have genetic predispositions

* over prescription of insulin to Type 2 and LADA – even though there’s good evidence for Type 2 reversal and cure via diet and lifestyle change, the insulin industry is pushing hard to get as many people using insulin as possible. LADA’s are being diagnosed sooner, but unfortunately, they’re being put immediately on insulin instead of using the available window of time to try a diet/lifestyle approach.

* new science showing residual pancreas function in longtime Type 1’s – recent studies contradict the typical unequivocal statements that “a Type 1’s pancreas is dead, or soon will be, period”.

* anecdotal diet-based reversals – my reversal story is not unique, but my cynical side says there’s more money in insulin and insulin-devices so why fund studies for alternatives. And it’s hard to measure the effects of holistic approaches using techniques like acupuncture and meditation.

* the similarities of the large list of common chronic autoimmune inflammatory diseases – taking the typical western medicine narrow-focus-blinders off shows dozens of autoimmune inflammatory diseases like diabetes, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, crohn’s, celiac, etc. This is what starts to strengthen the whole processed food, environmental toxin angle for me.

* stress and the mental game are more than just an afterthought – others have done much of the same diet and supplement regimen as what I put together without stopping the autoimmune attack, so I’m placing much stronger emphasis on the role of stress, even down at the cellular level. I’ve had to remodel my life to get rid of minimize anger and anxiety.

If this story interest you, please check it out.

Refusing the Needle: A Diabetic’s Natural Journey to Kick-Ass Health , by Russell Stamets

Amazon(Kindle or paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007P6L5C4
Barnes & Noble (Nook): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/refusing-the-needle-russell-stamets/1110361672?ean=2940014469739
Apple (ipad): search the itunes store for Russell Stamets
Smashwords (all ereaders): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145608

blog: russellstamets.blogspot.com
Twitter: @russellstamets

Cool Down Recap

OK. So that was a workout. 30 days of posts for the Health Activist Writers Month Challenge completed. My normal output runs about 1 every 4 days. Props to Wegohealth for taking us through an interesting obstacle course. Storytelling, verse, and different kinds of visuals stretched us into new modes.

My favorites for the month were the ekphasis, haiku, and six sentence story prompts. And even what seemed a trite prompt, like “describe a first time” resulted in a creation I was pleased with. And there were surprises; an incidental use in the challenges/victories post of an image of the drinkingbird toy from many years back prompted more than 40 repins overnight on my Pinterest board. The post it’s linked to is still enjoying about a third more page views than might be expected. Just for grins, I think I’ll throw a slinky in here and see what happens :)

photo by marcdroberts

As a bit of a recluse, normally broadcasting solo from this outlaw radio station of a blog, it’s been healthy for me to be a little more social. I felt like a mountain man coming down to the spring gathering. It’s been nice to meet a few new friends. It’s been particularly hopeful to see the number of positive messages supported by participants. Disease communities are often such a pity party. Nice job Wegohealth for attracting more optimists!

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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