Saturday, June 27, 2009

Stop the diabetes, I want to get off!

I had really disappointing results from my recent blood test -- since I lowered my dietary cholesterol to 5 mg per day or less by reducing meat, dairy, fish, and eggs in my diet, the LDL has gone UP (though the HDL and triglicerides are still good). I finally accepted a statin prescription for Crestor.

Also my A1C (aka HBA1C or glycosylated hemoglobin) went up instead of down. That's mainly because 1) I "forget" my nighttime insulin quite often, as well as the oral meds, and 2) I eat too much starchy food (even though it's whole grain), and 3) I don't prepare and eat the vegetables I buy.

And I don't seem to have enough energy to exercise, which is a symptom of uncontrolled blood sugar. But I need to exercise to help control my blood sugar -- it's a vicious cycle for sure.

David Mendosa is a type 2 diabetic who was overweight (BMI of 40) and had an A1C of over 14% when he was diagnosed. He learned how to manage his own DM and now has a BMI of 19 (very good) and an A1C well under 6.0, which is about what non-diabetic people average. I read his column (click here to read it: http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/75990/motivation?ic=6044) about what motivates him to control his own diabetes and to help motivate just one other person at a time.

You can imagine that I have a lot of work to do to get such control!!

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