Diabetes Tips With Captain Russ - alcohol

"Captain Russ knows his IPAs from his ESBs" I think quitting alcohol is a deal-breaker for some. It's embedded in our whole personal and social fabric. But weighed against life and the FSIS, it was an easy decision for me.

So Exactly How Am I Lowering My HbA1c?

My posts and replies so far only give a few specifics. It’s quite a laundry list. I don’t know exactly what’s working. It’s certainly some combination of what's listed below. I have some “science” that supports (for me) each of these things. You can find most of them in my online bookmarks. Everything is intended to either help with the autoimmune (type1),  insulin receptivity (type2), or stress (huge driver for both). But here’s a quick rundown of what I’m doing/taking:

-quit all alcohol (my acupuncturist said stress on liver = stress on pancreas)
-quit almost all caffeine (one study suggested it and saturated fat spike BS)
-quit animal saturated fat (no dairy, fatty meats have to be grilled, i.e. no pot roast)
-other than those, eating the kind of lean, low carb diet you see posted often. Slight differences from some, including limitless fruit and nuts, especially flavanoids like strawberrys and blueberrys, lots o cinnamon.
-eat constantly, every 3 hours or so, nothing after 7pm
-extremely strict adherence to all the above.
-15 minutes meditation daily (besides the stress relief, google Wim Hof - autoimmune)
-weekly acupuncture (stress, getting the pancreas “burner” going)
-perpetual motion (especially after meals, like 20 min walk after lunch, standing at work computer, stairs)
-supplements include: fish oil (autoimmune, inflammation), Alpha-Lipoic Acid (type2, BS control), B complex (stress, biotin source), Vitamin D (type1, autoimmune), NAC (type1, inflammation), GABA (type1, autoimmune - one mouse study showed both beta cell regeneration and reduced immune attack on them), Zinc (type2, amylin prevention)
-still taking metformin, quit the glipizide in August

CAUTIONS: It’s doubtful that any 2 individual’s lists will be the same. My doctor and nutritionist see no risks in this approach for ME. Don’t forget I’m LADA and have to work on both Type 1 and Type 2 aspects. Some things, like the fact that animal saturated fat spikes my blood sugar may be completely unique to my genetic makeup. Nobody else seems to have seen this. Don’t forget that I started skinny and that the activity increase and lean diet try to make me skinnier. I’m eating more fruit carbs along with my pounds of almonds to keep the weight on. Many of you Type 2’s probably wouldn’t mind the weight loss my regimen generates without those added carbs. But that’s mostly a quantity thing.

Please keep asking questions. This conversation will take time to tease all the details out. I believe the hardest parts are the mental changes. Giving up beer was hard, but truly being happy about it is harder. That’s why you here me saying things like “if you play the victim, this won’t work”. Stress is probably my biggest driver. It would take books worth of explaining to get at all of just my issues. Everybody’s different. For me, a lot of the stress was because I’ve a talent for being a bit of an a**hole. Learning to instinctually become a kinder person is MUCH easier said than done.

Is that any help?




___
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

Canary in a Coal Mine

photo by Bill Bouton

The millions of us whose diabetes is not completely hereditary, which would include Type 2 and LADA, have our environment to thank. Some of it we can control, but it’s the same environment that the non-diabetic world lives in. And we die of pretty much the same things as the rest of the world. It’s just that the heart attack or stroke might come sooner because of the diabetes. I have to keep reminding myself that it is NOT diabetes that kills anyone. It’s the complications. We diabetics not only die from the same things as everybody else, we have the same inputs that contribute: stress, diet, alcohol, and activity level.

The onset of the diabetes epidemic is just the harbinger of a dying-too-early epidemic for the whole human race. But unless fate, or the fairly weak set of known facts, lulls us into inaction, we can be the canary that leads the rest of our grubby miner earth-mates to fresh air.

I’m sure people often think it’s just a line when I say, “Diabetes is the best thing that ever happened to me.” But the point is that this wake up call has mandated lifestyle changes that will extend my life. What I’ve done to control my diabetes is the same stuff that would extend anyone’s life. What a claim, huh? You may not know me well enough to know I don’t make it lightly. My assumption that there’s some good to come from this major life-twist also helps my head. And so... I believe I’m a canary, mapping the tunnel-maze, finding a reasonable path to a sustainable life for myself and anyone else.




___
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

Diabetes Tips With Captain Russ - Don't make them do it too

How are your nuts?

wonderful walnuts in my oatmeal at 7
first fist-full of almonds with banana around 10
salty sunflower seeds suffuse lunch’s wrap at 1
more almighty almonds with dried mango at 3
perhaps pistachios arriving home at 5
or curry cashews for cocktail hour
and walk the wild side with wasabi almonds in dinner’s salad

I love my nuts!

___

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

Diabetes Tips With Captain Russ - Stress & Instincts

"Captain Russ has been there." I realized that knowing how to react is not the same as reacting. You've got to change your instincts.

How can I help without sounding like a crackpot?

I’ve done something that’s not exactly in line with the diabetes establishment. I know it’s relevant right now as this epidemic gets fully ramped up. There’s no way I can be such a complete genetic outlier that my experience doesn’t apply to other diabetics. I think as a LADA, standing at the crossroads of Type 1 and Type 2, my perspective is unique. They’re still guessing about LADA. They know it’s autoimmune, and they know there’s a multi-year year window until insulin is required. That window makes all the difference. In 2009, when I told my extremely evidence-based-medicine-driven physician (DO) that I would do anything to avoid the FSIS (F***ing Shot in the Stomach), he said, “Well, any endocrinologist would put you on insulin now, without a second thought. But there’s no evidence that your outcomes would be any better than waiting until after meds and lifestyle changes have become ineffective.” That was 2 and a half years ago (HbA1c=11.1). The next year and a half progressed exactly as he predicted. The metformin, glipizide and reasonable lifestyle changes initially dropped the HbA1c to 6.4, followed by a slow rise to 8.8 at the end of 2010. We doubled the metformin. The numbers came down, but not as far, and for not as long. By February of 2011, my fasting BS was headed up again. But I didn’t wait for that. As soon as we doubled the metformin, I took charge (I’m sure my wife would call it obsessed). I utterly rejected the FSIS as an acceptable option. If western medicine shrugged and saw only one path... I’d look east.  And I’d look at lower grades of evidence. Hell, I’ve taken at least one supplement based on a mouse study. As long as my DO and nutritionist could see no harm.

So... it’s nearly October, 2011. My HbA1c has dropped to 5.5, and I quit the glipizide more than a month ago per the DO’s OK after my once a day morning fasting BS stabilized below 126 (the magic line on my graph). Fantastic story, huh? Even I, a fairly crusty skeptic, have allowed myself to get a little excited. Have I banished the FSIS forever? It’s pretty undeniable my pancreas is functioning at a substantial level. Have I reversed an irreversible autoimmune disease? It’ll take years to know for sure, but LADA is supposed to be a worsening progression, NOT dropping numbers with fewer meds. Exactly which, or what combination, of strict diet, excersise, supplements, acupuncture, meditation, stress reduction (only achievable via extensive mental re-build) has been/is the solution? We have no idea. None of my team (DO, acupuncturist/nutritionist) can write this up and submit it anywhere. Too many variables. I sure as hell wasn't going to double-blind test myself for each component (or combination) of this “treatment”. I wouldn’t have lived that long, even without diabetes. So you’re not going to hear about this from your doc, or read about it in JAMA. I’m not a usable data point.

I could just sail off toward my now happier and healthier, insulin-free horizon and leave the rest to fend for themselves. But it would seem such a waste not to share the the fruits of my self-experiment. Every body’s different, and would have to customize the recipe, but none of the ingredients are new, or costly. So I ask again, both longtime diabetes warriors and newly diagnosed alike, how can I lend my body of evidence to help without sounding like a snake oil salesman?