Thursday, April 5, 2007

Responsibility and Negativity

Good morning, I hope you are having a much better morning than am I. We got a few inches of snow overnight and it's very cold outside. But that's not the reason my mood this morning is dull. I joined one of those forum groups yesterday, it didn't last long. The forum was for regular folks with diabetes to whine about their condition.

Let's talk about responsibility, negativity and predispositions:

In that forum they were all following the party-line, believing every word the FDA puts out. They admitted to eating mass quantities of artificial sweeteners and complaining about feeling lousy. My enthusiasm was not only not appreciated but resented, I was called a liar- friends in ether-land, can you believe it? I was told, again that diabetes cannot be reversed, Now I KNOW that's not true, but negativity struck again, and it made me feel sad. So I quit the forum and deleted my membership. Why? Because I'm a SORE LOSER? No, because I need the positive reinforcement from others who are not being victims of this disease and are taking responsibility for their involvement [poor life-style choices; bad eating habits and being sedentary], in being sick.

It is absolutely fundamental that we take responsibility for ourselves; that we see how our past is affecting our present and to change our habits to realize a much better future.

I used to wake up every morning very sick; nauseated, head achy, and physically depressed, this was every day folks. I'm not saying that it's a blame/fault thing, but hey psssssst.... IT IS! I ate fat-laden foods, I bought a large box of chocolates from Norway [yes, Norway the country next to Sweden!] as a Christmas gift to myself and ate them ALL. OK, sure I was predisposed to have diabetes because my mother had it, before she died: see there are other ways of reversing it, but I prefer my way, Thenk yew sooo much!

Speaking of predisposed, it is not a death sentence, I have a very good friend who is nearly at retirement age [65], and she is careful to not get diabetes, her own mother died of it a few years ago. My husband's brother has it and my husband does not.

So, please let's not whine about how you had no choice. Excessive intake of Fatty foods/starchy foods and white sugars cause the pancreas to be unable to continue to do its job.

And as to the claim I heard yesterday on that forum, that I'd always be a diabetic, I'm just not going to believe that kind of negativity, I know I will always have to be vigilant, to eat better than I have all my life but I will be disease-free!


Diabetes is an inflammatory disease.

...Diabetes Mellitus: An Inflammatory Disease Of The Islet
Regine Bergholdt*, Peter Heding*, Sif Groth Rønn*, Joachim Størling*, Morten Tonnesen*, Flemming Pociot and Thomas Mandrup-Poulsen
Steno Diabetes Center, Gentofte, Denmark
Corresponding author:
Thomas Mandrup-Poulsen, MD, PhD
Professor of Immunodiabetology
Chief Physician
Steno Diabetes Center
Niels Steensens Vej 2
DK-2820 Gentofte
Denmark
Fax: +45 44 43 82 32

E-mail: tmpo@steno.dk
~~~~~~~
"...diabetes Mellitus... is generally considered to be a classical autoimmune disease, in which immune tolerance is broken by environmental factors in genetically predisposed individuals, leading to recognition of specific β-cell antigens by helper T-cells that subsequently activate effector T-cells, and these effector T-cells then directly mediate β-cell killing."
~~~~~~~~
Let's break this down to make it easier to understand this phrase "autoimmune disease" and "broken by environmental factors"

Autoimmune: Pertaining to autoimmunity, a misdirected immune response that occurs when the immune system goes awry and attacks the body itself.
Environmental factors: they way one eats and how active they are.

In other words, the body is trying hard to do its job, repairing itself but something is out of whack and it begins to attack itself.

In the case of diabetes, the pancreas is trying to do its part but the body has been so innundated with all the wrong substances it goes crazy trying to fix the situation, then the cells, dulled by excess are unable to recognise how to utilize the insulin it needs to metabolize the sugars it is receiving, so it rejects the insulin instead.

This is written by doctors folks read it and weep, they are exactly saying it is a disease caused by our poor life-style choices.


>About 176,500 people aged 20 years or younger have diabetes. This group represents 0.22 percent of all people in this age group.

>About one in every 400 to 600 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes.
>Total: 20.8 million people—7 percent of the population—have diabetes.

>Diagnosed: 14.6 million people

>Undiagnosed: 6.2 million people
for a complete list of statistics

Now to be very clear, I'm not talking about type1, just type2, I have not investigated T1 at all and have no idea about its causes and preventions. These are actually two very different conditions.

Unfortunately there are many, way too many people in our society who refuse to take any responsibility for anything occurring in their lives. This notion is reinforced by the medical community who claims every human condition is pathological, and requires medication to 'cure'.
path·o·log·i·cal (pth-lj-kl) or path·o·log·ic (-k)
adj.
1. Of or relating to pathology.
2. Relating to or caused by disease.

I knew a man who was an Alcoholic who told me repeatedly that alcoholism was "caused by a little malfunction in his brain." This absolved him of any blame for his problem and took the "cure" and consequences out of his hands and affixed the blame firmly on his parents who "gave" him this thing in his brain. I'm sorry, but alcoholism is caused entirely by excessive drinking and the "thing" in his brain is merely a predisposition.

I know this is a very unpopular position but it is how I will carry myself into health. There is no magic bullet, no one to sue, no one to point a finger at but myself and if you want to whine and insist that you are a victim,I will not incorporate your attitude into my life. I am getting well! You can most certainly refute anything I've written, I'd love to hear from you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK let's say, for the purposes of being absolutely fair: diabetes is beyond our control we Are victims and are Doomed, I say DOOMED to be sick. Where does that leave you? Is there any hope here? No? well I am trying to bring hope.
My diet and supplement plan is making me healthier now, if it helps my future then who am I hurting?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm currently on a maintenance diet now that includes a few foods that I did not eat while on the original jump-start diet. I have to say the JS diet only lasted about four weeks, I ate bland food and hardly any of that, I was miserable, I'm used to what I'm doing now with my diet but then I've added in a bit of sugar, more salt, and lots more flavor. I still severely limit fats, no trans fats or saturated fats.

By the way, I wake up refreshed and feeling so much better!

If you are looking to find out what exactly was on my original JS diet, write to me at webriter@verizon.net or leave a comment on my blog here.

a few supplements to help you with diabetes:
milk thistle Supports healthy liver function and powerful antioxidants work in the liver and kidneys scavenging free radicals.

Alpha lipoic Acid very good for Diabetic support

Diabetic support formula has lots of supplements to keep Diabetes in control.

Chromium can improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood glucose levels.

Cinnamon Helps maintain blood sugar and Promotes normal blood lipid profiles.

2 comments:

Pj said...

Katy, I find your writings very interesting. Since speaking with you I have tried to make a few changes in my own eating habits. I applaud you for your determination. Keep up the good work.

webriter said...

Awesome!!! My greatest desire to help people feel better.