Knowledge, hope from education

My job has me teach­ing peo­ple with dia­betes a total lifestyle change. When the major­ity of peo­ple think about dia­betes they refer to a list of foods that are for­bid­den. I will never for­get the man who pounded on my office door demand­ing the “No-No” list for his wife.

He said, “Just give me the list of what she can’t eat and she’ll be fine.” I smiled at him and his per­sis­tence but responded, “I do not have a ‘No-No’ list. All my lists are ‘Yes-Yes’ lists.”

Yes, there is hope for every­one with the diag­no­sis of pre­di­a­betes or dia­betes, Type 1 or Type 2. This includes ges­ta­tional dia­betes and a new form labeled Type 1.5.

Just last week, I was explain­ing that the pri­mary cause of death due to dia­betes 60 years ago was gan­grene and infec­tion caused by rusty injec­tion nee­dles. New med­ical advance­ments have given those who must inject insulin in 2012 a stain­less steel nee­dle that is less than an inch long and as thin as a strand of hair.

There is even an insulin pump with a small tube placed beneath the skin that com­mu­ni­cates with a con­tin­u­ous blood sugar mon­i­tor elim­i­nat­ing cal­cu­la­tions and injec­tions. Sci­en­tists are now test­ing insulin that can be swal­lowed to elim­i­nate the needle.

Meal plan­ning (I hate the word ‘diet’) is as impor­tant as med­ica­tion. Many peo­ple do not real­ize that the proper amount of car­bo­hy­drate, pro­teins and fats must accom­pany dia­betic med­ica­tion. It is like the use of gaso­line and oil in a car. The engine can­not run with the wrong com­bi­na­tion. Incor­rect pro­por­tion can dam­age to the car. Like­wise with the body, a mis­cal­cu­la­tion with the amount of food and med­ica­tions can result in complications.

Exer­cise is under­rated. One of my clients came to me more than 400 pounds, and in six weeks he went from shuf­fling to my office to walk­ing a quar­ter mile four times a week. He reported that his blood sug­ars are more sta­ble and the elas­tic on his pants is loose. He said that he almost lost his pants at the gas sta­tion. I think he weighs less than 400 pounds now.

This man feels bet­ter and is proud of his accom­plish­ment. There is hope in learn­ing more about dia­betes. Start­ing out slow and grad­u­ally build­ing up mus­cles is more encour­ag­ing than ini­tially work­ing too hard and quitting.

Few peo­ple real­ize the effect of stress on the body. I encour­age my clients to find some­thing beau­ti­ful to look at when stressed. One woman actu­ally mon­i­tored her glu­cose before and after admir­ing a bou­quet of flow­ers. The dif­fer­ence was amazing.

Peo­ple tell me that I always write about dia­betes. The rea­son is because the num­ber of peo­ple that have dia­betes as well as the num­ber of peo­ple who live with or know some­one with dia­betes is increas­ing annu­ally. The com­pli­ca­tions of dia­betes like heart dis­ease, stroke, kid­ney dis­ease, ampu­ta­tions, blind­ness, loss of feel­ing, depres­sion, to name a few can be pre­vented in most peo­ple. It is my pub­lic ser­vice to offer hope.

Bob­bie Ran­dall is a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor and a reg­is­tered, licensed dietit­ian. She super­vises a dia­betes self-management train­ing pro­gram at Aultman-Orrville Hos­pi­tal, Orrville. Con­tact her at bobbie.randall@aultmanorrville.org or 330–684-4776.

Posted by Bobbie Randall on Aug 2 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.