Back again…
by Bernard Brandt
It seems that I’ve been away too long from this silly weblog. The reason why is that I have been rather ill of late. You know, things like uncontrolled diabetes, neuropathy involving numbness of the soles of the feet, a pain like someone has driven a ten penny nail into the sole of my right heel, blurred vision, and an inability to think clearly or for long. Oh, and staying in bed the entire day, too numbed with grief over the loss of my wife, Beth, to do much of anything except drink. Little stuff like that.
The most I’ve been able to do of late is to make small comments on FB, which don’t seem to express what I really mean to say. Double plus un-friended.
I think I hit bottom when I managed to find two containers of test strips for my blood sugar monitor. Fasting blood sugars of 250, when the norm is 90-110. Yeah, I can see how this would go, and rather quickly: chronic high blood sugars interfere with new capillary formation, causing particular damage to things like kidneys, nerves, retinas, and brain tissue. Kidney malfunction leads to high blood pressure, which in turn leads to increased pressures on malformed capillaries, which in turn leads to a cascade of blindness, kidney failure, stroke, tissue necrosis, gangrene, and whole bunches of other fun stuff.
Well, as Andy Dufresne said, ‘Get busy living, or get busy dying.’ I decided to try the former of the two options.
Of course, mismanaged care is right out. First, find the ID number of L.A. Care. Next, call up and wait an hour before a nurse answers. Then, schedule an appointment three weeks from now. Then drive to a really shitty area in Long Beach ten miles away. Then wait three hours before being seen. Then be told that you need to do blood work, and that will take three more weeks to schedule. Then schedule another appointment (three more weeks) to hear the results of the blood work. Be told that you have diabetes (which you already knew), and be prescribed drugs which you already know will only treat symptoms, and will only postpone the inevitable cascade of morbidity and mortality. Rinse and repeat.
So instead, two weeks ago I cut out the morning pastry I was eating from the local convenience store. Ditto foods with sugars, starches, and simple carbohydrates. Cut out processed foods. Fasting also helps. So does eating low on the food chain. Vegetables, (some) fruit, grains, legumes, and nuts. Balance vegetable proteins (beans and grains, milk, wheat and peanuts, things like that). Bite the bullet, and finally cut out the beer and wine.
And so, in the last two weeks, fasting blood sugars have dropped as of this morning to 106.
I’ve slimmed down and lost much of the gut I once had. Now the process shifts to maintaining the diet, increasing exercise, and getting down a bit nearer to my ideal weight. Of course, that damned stabbing pain in my right heel interferes with my preferred method of exercise, which is walking. But Naproxen Sodium (aka Aleve) interferes with the pain. And there is a recumbent exercise bicycle in the house. We’ll see what we can do. Perhaps with continued low blood sugars, a healthy diet, and regular exercise, my body might be able to repair the nerve damage in the soles of my feet.
The point, though, is that there are some strong indications that interabdominal fat, and more particularly, excessive fat around and in the liver and pancreas, interferes with insulin production and uptake. Ditto that reduction of such fat promotes said insulin production and uptake. It’s worth a try.
I think that it says somewhere in the Philokalia that a monk should both be willing to die today, but also, to preserve the health of his body for as long as possible. It sounds like a plan, even for a weird little eremite and autodidact like me. We’ll see how it all works out.
Meat is better for you than vegetable proteins. Cholesterol is not a problem.
Look into milk thistle. It helps your liver and there was a study done in Egypt (where they don’t have much health care) where they took milk thistle standardized to 150mg silymarin three times a day. They did this to see if would help with blood sugar and it did.
If you end up feeling like you’ve got to cheat- go for a dry wine from France- preferably one that has been made for generations. The Californians have been putting extra chemicals in the wine for various reasons, and these things don’t bode well for my digestion. They’ve managed to avoid having to put this on the label. The beer is loaded with sugar, particularly maltose, which will be very bad for you even though it doesn’t taste as sweet as other sugars.
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Dear Mr. Hurtel,
I would agree with you that while meat is murder, it is delicious murder, and nothing that I wish to remove permanently from my diet. I would also agree with you that the consumption of cholesterol is less of a problem than quantities and types of fat consumed. Finally, as an amateur enologist and zymurgist for more than the past two score years, I agree that the additives used by most Yanks, while improving the likelihood of successful vinting, also add stuff that I’m allergic to. Fortunately, there’s a lovely little winemaking place a mile from where I live, and I’m thinking of resuming old habits. Finally, thanks for the suggestion as to milk thistle. I’ll look into it.
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Bernard: have you come across Prof. Roy Taylor’s work in Newcastle University (England) on type II diabetes? It is a rather drastic diet used in the study, 600 calories per day for up to 8 weeks. Something for your hardcore Eastern Lent maybe… They also looking at the longterm effects of the so-called 5/2 diet, two days fasting per week.
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Dear Dr. Graham,
Thank you for your recommendation of Prof. Taylor’s work. I have indeed read it, and it has been much of the basis for my dietary changes. I am hoping that the same results may be obtained by less drastic means, but I am keeping his diet as an option in the event my current methods don’t work. I am also considering re-adopting Orthodox fasting practices, which involve fasting (i.e., two meals per day) and abstinence (omitting meat, fish, wine and oil) for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
By the bye, I have taken the liberty of editing your entry in accordance with your erratum, and deleting the erratum. I hope you don’t mind.
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Glad to hear you are taking better care of yourself, and are feeling better. Does Medicare not provide you with test strips, lancets, etc?
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These days, Medicare kicks in when I’m 65. I’m 63. Sorry. But thank you for asking, Batushka. And the strips, which are the only thing I really need, are very expensive.
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Thanks for the update. Prayers for your continuing health and taking the steps to stay healthy.
Fred has lost over 30 pounds through changing his eating habits and daily walks. He feels much better.
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