Dealing with Diabetes2 and remembering Goldi Community Group
A support group for individuals with Type2 diabetes. Encouragement, empathy, advice, and personal experiences from members dealing with the illness. A friendly environment with compassion and support as our main objective.
The major worry about Diabetes is heart conditions arising from having it.
Blood pressure and cholesterol seem to be just as important I take statins my blood pressure is OK
Don't know if I should also take an aspirin
below is part of an article from todays NY Times
Looking Past Blood Sugar to Survive With Diabetes
Published: August 20, 2007
(Page 4 of 4)
Dr. Hirsch has a message for diabetes patients: If he had to rate the different regimens for a typical middle-age person with Type 2 diabetes, the first priority would be to take a statin and lower the LDL cholesterol level.
Six Killers
Diabetes
This series examines the leading causes of illness and death in the United States: heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and Alzheimerâs.
Previous Articles in the Series »
Expert Q&A
Readersâ Questions About Diabetes
Dr. John Buse of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill answered readers' questions.
Multimedia
Dr. Brownlee agreed, but added that the two other measures to protect against heart disease, blood pressure control and taking an aspirin to prevent blood clots, should not be neglected.
âRight now, without waiting for lots of exciting things that are almost in the pipeline or in the pipeline, starting tomorrow, if everyone did these things â taking a statin, taking a blood pressure medication, and maybe taking an aspirin â you would reduce the heart attack rate by half.â
The Burnout
Even when patients do take the right steps to control diabetes, the grueling process can simply wear them down.
Virgil Umbarger learned that he had Type 2 diabetes when he was 39 and had a medical exam for a life insurance policy.
That was 25 years ago, and the start of a journey that diabetes specialists say ends up fundamentally changing a personâs world. Unlike Mr. Smith, who has just awakened to the danger he is in, Mr. Umbarger, a funeral director in Yakima, Wash., has lived with diabetes and its increasingly complex regimen for decades. And, as happens with most diabetes patients eventually, he feels he is reaching a point where he just cannot continue to do all that he should to protect his health.
In a sense, Mr. Umbarger said, he was not completely surprised when he learned he had diabetes, because it runs in his family. But he never thought it would happen to him. At 6 feet tall and 195 pounds, he was not heavy.
Still, Mr. Umbargerâs first thought was to lose weight. âI starved myself,â he said, and lost 15 pounds. But he still had diabetes and the pounds crept back on.
Dr. Buse said his patients knew how important it was to diet and exercise, but most could not do it enough to make a difference, and some were also thwarted by medications to control blood sugar that make patients gain weight.
In the end, Mr. Umbarger decided to seek care from a diabetes specialist. He chose Dr. Hirsch, even though it meant driving nearly three hours each way for an office visit. There was no one nearby with that kind of expertise, Mr. Umbarger said.
On his first visit, Dr. Hirsch gave him a fistful of prescriptions, including a statin, blood pressure medications and one for the drug Mr. Umbarger dreaded â insulin. He also told Mr. Umbarger to have regular checks for eye, nerve and kidney damage. And he has to watch what he eats and count carbohydrates.
Dr. Hirsch and other diabetes specialists say they are well aware of how daunting the program can be.
âMany come here once or twice and walk away saying, âI donât want to do this,â â Dr. Hirsch said.
Not Mr. Umbarger. For years, he tried to do all that was required. He can cope with the medications and the long drives to see Dr. Hirsch. The problem for him, as for most diabetes patients eventually, is the blood sugar monitoring. He is supposed to prick his finger six or more times a day to measure his glucose levels and adjust his insulin dose accordingly.
Every time he checks his blood sugar is like getting a report card â was he eating too many carbohydrates? Did he get the insulin dose right?
âI donât want to look,â he said.
âPricking your finger, seeing that number day after day, it wears on you,â Mr. Umbarger said. âItâs like a ball and chain.â He confesses that he has only been checking his blood sugar once or twice a day, guessing at many of his insulin doses. His blood sugar levels have been rising and guilt hangs over him.
Meanwhile, no matter what they do, most people with Type 2 diabetes get worse as the years go by. Patients make less and less insulin and their cells become less and less able to use the insulin they do produce.
âThat is why it is not uncommon to start initially with diet therapy, then after a few years we need to add a drug that improves insulin sensitivity,â Dr. Kahn said. âThen when that drug isnât enough, we add a second drug that improves insulin sensitivity by a different mechanism. Then we add a drug that stimulates that pancreas to make more insulin.â
Then, he added, patients with Type 2 diabetes may need insulin itself, but when that happens they have to take even more than a person with Type 1 diabetes â two or even three times as much â because their cells no longer respond adequately to the hormone.
While it is not easy to re-energize burned-out patients, Dr. Hirsch said, at the very least, doctors and patients should know what is important.
âWe already have the miracle pillsâ â statins and blood pressure medications, he said. And they are available for pennies a day, as generics.
âWe need patient education and physician training that this stuff is out there and this is what we should be focusing on to make a difference in lives.â
Blood pressure and cholesterol seem to be just as important I take statins my blood pressure is OK
Don't know if I should also take an aspirin
below is part of an article from todays NY Times
Looking Past Blood Sugar to Survive With Diabetes
Published: August 20, 2007
(Page 4 of 4)
Dr. Hirsch has a message for diabetes patients: If he had to rate the different regimens for a typical middle-age person with Type 2 diabetes, the first priority would be to take a statin and lower the LDL cholesterol level.
Six Killers
Diabetes
This series examines the leading causes of illness and death in the United States: heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and Alzheimerâs.
Previous Articles in the Series »
Expert Q&A
Readersâ Questions About Diabetes
Dr. John Buse of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill answered readers' questions.
Multimedia
Dr. Brownlee agreed, but added that the two other measures to protect against heart disease, blood pressure control and taking an aspirin to prevent blood clots, should not be neglected.
âRight now, without waiting for lots of exciting things that are almost in the pipeline or in the pipeline, starting tomorrow, if everyone did these things â taking a statin, taking a blood pressure medication, and maybe taking an aspirin â you would reduce the heart attack rate by half.â
The Burnout
Even when patients do take the right steps to control diabetes, the grueling process can simply wear them down.
Virgil Umbarger learned that he had Type 2 diabetes when he was 39 and had a medical exam for a life insurance policy.
That was 25 years ago, and the start of a journey that diabetes specialists say ends up fundamentally changing a personâs world. Unlike Mr. Smith, who has just awakened to the danger he is in, Mr. Umbarger, a funeral director in Yakima, Wash., has lived with diabetes and its increasingly complex regimen for decades. And, as happens with most diabetes patients eventually, he feels he is reaching a point where he just cannot continue to do all that he should to protect his health.
In a sense, Mr. Umbarger said, he was not completely surprised when he learned he had diabetes, because it runs in his family. But he never thought it would happen to him. At 6 feet tall and 195 pounds, he was not heavy.
Still, Mr. Umbargerâs first thought was to lose weight. âI starved myself,â he said, and lost 15 pounds. But he still had diabetes and the pounds crept back on.
Dr. Buse said his patients knew how important it was to diet and exercise, but most could not do it enough to make a difference, and some were also thwarted by medications to control blood sugar that make patients gain weight.
In the end, Mr. Umbarger decided to seek care from a diabetes specialist. He chose Dr. Hirsch, even though it meant driving nearly three hours each way for an office visit. There was no one nearby with that kind of expertise, Mr. Umbarger said.
On his first visit, Dr. Hirsch gave him a fistful of prescriptions, including a statin, blood pressure medications and one for the drug Mr. Umbarger dreaded â insulin. He also told Mr. Umbarger to have regular checks for eye, nerve and kidney damage. And he has to watch what he eats and count carbohydrates.
Dr. Hirsch and other diabetes specialists say they are well aware of how daunting the program can be.
âMany come here once or twice and walk away saying, âI donât want to do this,â â Dr. Hirsch said.
Not Mr. Umbarger. For years, he tried to do all that was required. He can cope with the medications and the long drives to see Dr. Hirsch. The problem for him, as for most diabetes patients eventually, is the blood sugar monitoring. He is supposed to prick his finger six or more times a day to measure his glucose levels and adjust his insulin dose accordingly.
Every time he checks his blood sugar is like getting a report card â was he eating too many carbohydrates? Did he get the insulin dose right?
âI donât want to look,â he said.
âPricking your finger, seeing that number day after day, it wears on you,â Mr. Umbarger said. âItâs like a ball and chain.â He confesses that he has only been checking his blood sugar once or twice a day, guessing at many of his insulin doses. His blood sugar levels have been rising and guilt hangs over him.
Meanwhile, no matter what they do, most people with Type 2 diabetes get worse as the years go by. Patients make less and less insulin and their cells become less and less able to use the insulin they do produce.
âThat is why it is not uncommon to start initially with diet therapy, then after a few years we need to add a drug that improves insulin sensitivity,â Dr. Kahn said. âThen when that drug isnât enough, we add a second drug that improves insulin sensitivity by a different mechanism. Then we add a drug that stimulates that pancreas to make more insulin.â
Then, he added, patients with Type 2 diabetes may need insulin itself, but when that happens they have to take even more than a person with Type 1 diabetes â two or even three times as much â because their cells no longer respond adequately to the hormone.
While it is not easy to re-energize burned-out patients, Dr. Hirsch said, at the very least, doctors and patients should know what is important.
âWe already have the miracle pillsâ â statins and blood pressure medications, he said. And they are available for pennies a day, as generics.
âWe need patient education and physician training that this stuff is out there and this is what we should be focusing on to make a difference in lives.â
As soon as I was diagnosed almost 12 years ago, my dr, told me to take a low dose aspirin every morning, I'm also on blood pressure meds and small dose of lipitor.