Que Sera Sera, Not All Meters Are Equal, Knowing May Save Your LIfe,.VI

  How Your Blood Test Meter Can Help You Beat Type II Diabetes

About the first of February my health care provider informed me that they had changed their program. That they had made a deal with a company called Maxor to provide all their pharmacy needs in the future. Based on a letter I received from Maxor they are not going to  support my Freestyle test strips anymore after April 1^st. They recommended I try the One Touch brand. My diabetes doctor’s office provided me a One Touch meter when I informed them.

Maxor said my brand of tester was to expensive. I wonder if they considered that I was no longer using insulin which according to my pharmacy was about an $1150 a month expense. That was quite a big savings. I know one thing if I used the meter they recommended I would be back on insulin. I don’t know if that is their goal or not, but it is certainly not mine. If they really wanted to cut cost they would send every diabetic they service a copy of Blood Sugar 101. Then offer a small percentage of any cost savings in the form of a premium reduction. If their goal was really to save money. Being off of insulin is saving me almost a $110 a month just in co-pay. That fills my car up twice. The price of my physical improvement from weight loss and health improvement are hard to measure.

The Practitioner who gave me the meter showed me how to use it. The test result was 137. I told her that seemed awful high and we tested on my Freestyle meter and it was 107. That is a 22% difference. As I told her my goal was to get down to an 80 point average. That one test result was not good. If my meter is right, that means an 80 on the One Touch meter would actually be a 60 on my meter. That could put a person at risk of going into a diabetic coma. Right then I decided to research the matter and have invested my own money to find out if the wide reading is systemic. My results may not be scientific, but they tell me there is a problem.

I have found some interesting facts. One is that when fasting they are all in a pretty close grouping, but still higher than my meter. However when eating a regular meal the spread in points can be very significant. About the same time I discovered a book called Blood Sugar 101 by Jenny Buhl. I got my copy thru Amazon. Her program to lower your test scores recommends testing before meals and about 2 hours after eating. She states anything over 120 should be considered not acceptable, others recommend 140. I prefer her guide and since I started following her guidelines my numbers have dropped dramatically.

If mine are over 100 when I test, I fast till I get results below 100. I am on what is called an intermittent fasting diet and only eat at 11AM and 5PM. That means no eating at all between 5PM and 11AM. Oh Yes and no snacks between 11 and 5. You actually get used to it after a short while. It helped me break the wall I had been stuck at for some time.

Why am I so concerned about the matter. It is really pretty simple, at least if you have lived as long as me. I am seventy three and have seen dozens of friends suffer the ravages of diabetes over time. Lost limbs, lost vision, are just a couple of the many consequences of a disease that basically rots your body from within. The sad thing is that it can be stopped by proper dieting. Another sad part of that is that most people would rather not change habits that they have had for a lifetime. Even if it means extending their life instead of cutting it short. I read where the results of diabetes can knock a decade off of your life expectancy.

To me it has become a matter of the quality my life. Three years ago I was always short of breath and unable to do even the most simple physical activities. Going for a one hour walk was out of the question. I may have to take my walker and break it up into smaller pieces but I can do it now. I can once again bend down to tie my shoes or pick things up. Simple thing, but if your health is so far gone you can’t do them it is wake up call that the lifestyle change was and is worth the cost.

For the last three years I have hardly written compared to when I started my blog back in 2011. For a time it was like I was going into a state of dimentia. I would sit down at the keyboard and I could not focus my thoughts. It has been slow but I have seen a gradual but steady change back to what I would call normal. I credit it all to my changes in diet and the weight loss I have experienced.

It is not my goal to claim some miracle healing, but I do want to share that changing your lifestyle can have some wonderful and enjoyable benefits. I never thought I would see seventy three. Especially after I technically died twice back in 04 and they bought me back. My goal now is to enjoy any and all the time I have left. This spring I was lucky enough to go to the graduation of my youngest grand child of seven, and only grand daughter. Since then I have managed to live longer than my Dad did. So if I am going to stick around I intend to continue to have goals. I would like to be around for my twin great grand daughters graduation. They turned eight on Sunday. If I live as long as my Mom I will be able to do it. As I take more after her it may be possible. Her side of the family has many people who lived till their 80’s and 90’s.

After three years of being on insulin and getting off it by changing my lifestyle and diet, it is possible to get Type II diabetes under control, but not without making some changes. The biggest one is getting the mindset that you are no longer going to be a victim. You can beat it but you have to get focused to do it.

Lord Willing I am going to go to the Chicago Area for a seminar on pond building in March. Over the last couple of years I have gotten hooked on watching Koi fish, My goal is to build my own pond. In September I went to the Atlanta Koi Show. Now I am planning to go to the Louisville Koi Show at Memorial Day, and then back to Atlanta this fall. Hopefully I will be able to work in a couple short trips to the Smoky Mountains also. Life is fun, live it, don’t just endure it.

Sorry about all the personal trivia, but I hadn’t written much in some time and was just trying to let my regular readers know why. Hopefully I can get back into a productive cycle. After all there are a lot of things going on that I used to write about on a regular basis and hopefully I can start sharing my two bits on a regular basis again.

Learning what to eat is the key. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdKxot74tQg&t=923s

                                      Blood Meter Test Results

Date   Freestyle     One Touch    ReliOn    ReliOn    AccuChek  Freestyle

           Freedom Lite        Ultra 2             Premier        Prime          Guide Me            Neo

2/18AM   107                   109                    123              105               127                  117

2/18PM    74                      95                      91                95                 89                    96

2/19AM   113                    134                   125              118               142                   116

2/19PM    114                    111                   118              115               143                   103

2/20AM   124                    135                   131              129               139                   121

2/20PM   100                     113                  100               105               103                    93

  

2/21AM   130                   134                   128               113               145                  110

2/21PM    83                    106                     94                 92                 95                    84

2/22AM   118                    132                  120               107              120                    95

2/22PM  100                      125                 109               104               107                   102

2/23AM  128                     144                  138              142                131                  138

2/23PM   114                     142                  123              127                130                  129

2/24AM  118                    126                   112              102                131                  113 (104)

2/24PM   89                     107                     95               86                  95                    82

2/25AM  113                    119                  132               141                 162                  114

2/25PM  100                    104                   104               105                116                   100

Totals   1538                  1936                 1843             1786               1975                 1713

Average 96                      121                   115               111                 123                   107

   

Numbers inside of brackets are results of tests taken 2 hours after eating. If the number is more than 120 it may not be a good meal for a diabetic. Some guides say 140 is okay. I prefer the lower number. I usually only do the two hour test when I am eating something I am not sure of the results.

One important point to keep in mind, the readings on your meter are used to determine what dose of medicine you are prescribed. If the meter is reading 30% high, you are getting 30% of medicine you may not need. The same could be said for a low meter reading, but would you rather be under dosed or over dosed? Think about that for a minute and let it sink in.

After doing this study and looking at the numbers I have to wonder. If the two highest meters are prescribed by doctors and give numbers that will make people have to take insulin, wouldn’t it save the company money to not prescribe insulin? The only thing that would make sense to use the high point meters is if the insurance companies were getting a kick back for prescribing high cost insulin. As insulin is much cheaper in other countries that is the only reason I can see for not wanting patients on meters giving lower numbers. I find it hard to believe four out of six meters could be that far off.

One factor makes me wonder what is going on. Freestyle Lite test strips are $1.67 per strip. The One Touch Ultra test strips are $1.37 which is much cheaper and understandable till you realize the higher numbers for the One Touch is going to put more people on insulin. If it was truly about saving money it would make more sense to prescribe the ReliOn Prime or the Freestyle Neo which are about 36 to 39 cents per test strip. The problem with those is that to many people would be getting off of the diabetes medicines. Which creates a problem for the pharmaceutical companies. How can you make a profit if no one is buying your product.

I may not be able to figure out the how and why of it all but I know Type II diabetes can be reversed. The problem is that to do that most patients will have to figure how to do it by themselves as many of the doctors have already written the diabetic off as a lost cause. That sounds like I am biased. I am not, and I am not the one who said it originally. I heard a doctor who was on a YouTube video say it. He said that not till he got diabetes himself did he realize the indifference of many in the medical fields.

Hope this helps someone. Your comments are welcome. In the words of my grand daughter “Sharing is Caring” If you know someone who is a diabetic I urge you to share this post and to read my other posts in this series. My blog only grows by word of mouth. I would like to have a lot of subscribers but that is not my goal. I write simply because I like writing and know that sharing knowledge can save someone else from enduring unnecessary hardships. Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Que SeraSera, Beating Type II Diabetes, It Can Be Done

Que Sera Sera, Beating Type II Diabetes, V

Fighting Diabetes is an uphill battle and very hard to win, but that being said, it can be done. I know because I am doing it and have a few tips that can make the whole thing a whole lot easier. Finding good and workable ways to beat Diabetes is a challenge. Even many of the doctors are willing to just write their diabetic patients off. Often their view is that the diabetic diseases and the damage they cause are inevitable. Let me tell you they are not, but victory does not just happen. It requires hard work, dedication, self control and self discipline. Having the will to change bad habits into good habits and knowing the difference.

At seventy-three I have seen a lot of my friends over the years lose the battle. Diabetes is a vicious and nasty disease and kills its victims often one piece at a time. A foot, a leg, eyes, kidneys, and many more pieces of your body. Many of the things happen so slowly many victims do not even realize they have a problem. One of the biggest killers is obesity. It is not being fat that causes the problem, there are many skinny diabetics also. The problem starts when your body slowly becomes insulin resistant. Slowly, often as people get older, but it can happen to young people to.To much sugar in your system and your bodies inability to properly dispose of it starts a very slow rotting process. There are many documentaries on YouTube that swear that their cancer was beaten and put into remission by strictly removing any and all kinds of sugar from their diet.

If your trying to get off of insulin or prevent getting on it, carbs are your worst enemy. From my experience if you eat carbs your test results will slowly start to go up. My way of dealing with it is that I do intermittent fasting. I only eat twice a day. Usually 11AM and 5PM. I can snack between 11 and 5 if my numbers are right, which for me is below 100. If my numbers are to high I fast till the next meal time and then I am careful what I eat. I test before I eat and two hours after I eat. If my two hour reading is over one hundred twenty it is fast time again. Do this long enough and the numbers will come down.

I have a diet of bacon and eggs, maybe with refried beans in a tortilla. I sometimes add cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms and a slice of onion for taste and flavor. Supper is usually veggies with protein, like chicken or fish, and maybe a salad. Most of my veggies are steamed and then fried with the protein in a skillet, usually with some mushrooms, onions and bacon grease added for taste. I always cook with real butter, lard or bacon grease. If you question my choices you need to watch the YouTube video, “Butter makes your pants fall off.” You might laugh but his before and after pictures and his testimony says it works. The only oil I use is Olive oil and it is only on certain items.

The real key to breaking the yoyo diet and weight problem is learning to use the glycemic index. There is a link t it in one of my earlier post. I have a book called, Glycemic Load Diet Cookbook. It is by Rob Thompson and Dana Carpender. I got my copy from Amazon and it is really handyand a valuable tool, because it tells you the glycemic load of lots of the more popular foods. The glycemic load indicates what impact a food will have on your blood sugar. Pork, eggs, butter, chicken, lettuce, cabbage, beef, chicken, cheese and broccoli have 0 impact, yes that is a zero. Those foods will not make you fat. At the other end of the scale is pancakes with a load of 346, a bagel at 340, spaghetti at 278 and baked potatos at 246. A slice of white bread comes in at 260, the alternative and my choice is a corn tortilla at 120 or a wheat tortilla at just 80 points. One of my favorites is refried pinto beans at 57 points. Learning to use the chart and pick the healthier but tasty foods makes a big difference.

So much for my diet, I don’t believe you have to sacrifice taste and fullness to lose weight. However you do need to learn what the foods you are eating do to your body. I have been using six blood meters a day for about two weeks now. I plan to share my early findings in my next blog post. My goal is to do it till I have thirty days worth of results.

My first eight days definitely have shown me that the time spent studying is worth my time. My goal is it to take on the health care system and prove it is all about dollars and cents to them and that they could care less about helping us stay healthy. If we are healthy they do not get any money, and that is all they are in it for.

Que Sera Sera, IV Whatever Will Be,Will Be, Not Necessarily

    

  Que Sera Sera, Whatever Will Be, Will Be, Not Necessarily

A year ago this month I wrote a post on dieting and proclaimed I would not write again till I hit two hundred fifty pounds or one year, whichever came first. Well I haven’t hit two hundred and fifty pounds, but I have learned a lot and I am no longer on insulin.

I had a recent experience concerning diabetes that may or may not save someone’s life.

My family insurance company sent me a notice that they were no longer going to cover my Freestyle brand of blood testing device. They gave me till 1 April to convert. Well I went to my diabetes doctor’s office and informed them of the problem. She said no problem, we have one of their recommended brands and we will give it to you. Well she showed me how it worked and it tested at one hundred thirty seven. I told her that seemed awful high. I had my meter with me so I tested on it and my score was one hundred and seven. That is thirty points difference. That is a difference of twenty-two percent. Her tester would put me back on insulin. It took me three years to get off of insulin and I am not eager to get back on it.

I told her my goal was to get to a steady blood sugar of eighty which is in the normal range which is seventy to eighty-five, which is some top secret information that it took me the whole three years to find out. Based on the score on her meter, if I got down to eighty, it would be sixty on my meter, which could mean being comatose. I told her I would do some research and figure out the solution on my own.

The first thing I learned was that my blood meter test strips cost $1.76 each, the one they wanted me to use was only $1.37 per strip. It was all about dollars and cents and my health was secondary.

I decided to fund my own little home study to see what is available. At present I am testing on six different meters twice a day and found there is a lot of difference not only in the prices, but also in the test results. The Walmart ReliOn Prime Meter cost only $9.00 and the test strips are just .36 cents each. The results with it are pretty close to the Freestyle brand I presentlyuse.

My goal is to do a thirty day test and see how consistent the results are. I have already found that when I am fasting there is usually only a ten point spread between the highest and the lowest. However, when I have eaten and take a test two hours after eating there can be as much as a sixty point spread between the highest and lowest.

If you are diabetic and want to beat it testing is the key. I recently read a book called Blood Sugar 101, by Jenny Ruhl and available from Amazon for about $16. She recommends that to eat effectively and avoid the big point swings that some foods can cause, it is essential to test before eating and two hours after eating. My goal is to stay at less than one hundred points. After two hours your blood sugar should not be above one hundred forty. My personal goal is not go above one hundred twenty points. Happily Chimichangas and most burritos with shredded beef and beans pass that test. Who says you can’t eat out. Personally if my score is above one hundred, I fast till it is below one hundred, I do a lot of short fasting. I have found by doing this I can break thru the wall that was keeping me from losing weight. I usually test at 11AM and 5PM. If my score is over a one hundred, I do not eat till 5PM. If it is still over one hundred I fast till the next morning. My longest fast was by accident and lasted 96 hours. It was part of how I learned to win the diabetes battle and to kick down the wall that kept me from losing weight. One of the keys to this is absolutely no snacks and yes no food between 5PM and 11AM. It is just something you can learn to do if you really want to lose the weight.

So how does one accidentally go on a 96 hour fast? Over Labor Day weekend I had planned a five day road trip. One of my goals was to bomb my house for bugs before I left and I did manage to do it. However I kind of screwed up. I got to the end of the drive and I realized I had not packed my meds or testing equipment. Being an Agent Orange recipient, having OCPD, as well as having only 30 to 40 percent lung capacity from a history of smoking and several bouts with pnuemonia, I could not go back in the house fo at least eight hours. So I decided to do the trip without meds or testing supplies. I was already fasting and just decided to continue it till I got back. I wasn’t to worried about it. My longest fast was back in the early eighties when I was going thru a vegetarian health nut phase of life. I went ten days and broke it out of boredom, not hunger. I was just out of the Army and only about 175 pounds back then. Getting back to that weight has sort of become my bucket list goal in life. At two pounds per month it will only take about eight years, so I may be on a diet till I die. Having been dead twice already I can live with that. LOL

When I got back my blood sugar was in the eighties and stayed below one hundred for over a week. Plus I had lost fourteen pounds, of which I gained most back as soon as I started eating. It was just after I got back I read the Blood Sugar 101 book. Then I knew how to get off of insulin and stay off. My doctor had told me before my trip if I lost another twenty pounds she would probably take me off of insulin. I have not taken it since I came back from my trip, but I know just enough now to be dangerous.

My goal in writing this is to share that it is possible to beat diabetes and to lose weight. I decided to just eat and enjoy life over Thanksgiving and the holidays and put on twenty pounds, but my New Years resolution to was to become serious about reaching my goal of two hundred and forty pounds, but even if I reach it I will continue to lose hopefully as long as I live. I certainly feel a lot better and a lot more able to get around than I used to be.

I do think I paid a price for my attempt at doing Keto, I may have lost a few pounds doing it, but my cholesterol went from 88 to 128. I had fought that battle before and beat it. The secret is cut out the fat and drink 8 ounces of red wine each day. Worked for me in the past and figure it will if I continue to do it. The one part of Keto I have kept is not eating carbs, carbs are what pack it on, that being said, there are good carbs also.

Another thing I discovered is steamed foods. I bought a little steamer pot and love it. I cut up cabbage, onions, carrots, celery, asparagus, cucumber, zucchini and steam it for about forty minutes. Then I take a chicken breast, polish sausage, or steak and fry it in a skillet with onions and mushrooms in bacon grease and add some bottled gravy sauce and it is awesome and virtually no calories. I use butter, lard, or olive oil for cooking, I don’t use any vegetable oils. My favorite spices are paprika, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, lemon pepper, garlic pepper, season all seasoning salt, and parsley. Spices are the key to making it all enjoyable.

One more key to learning to lose weight is to start using what is called the glycemic index, https://universityhealthnews.com/daily/nutrition/glycemic-index-chart/ to help in losing weight. Eating foods which are less than 50 on the glycemic index will really help take off the pounds. Foods like cabbage, onions, beans, celery, lettuce and several others contain virtually no calories and they actually take more calories to digest than they put into your system. That means you can lose weight and still stuff yourself. Yep it can actually be done.

Writing can be a frustrating enterprise especially when doing it on a new computer that you have never used. One wrong key and two hours of trying to put together a story in an interesting way and poof, it is gone, and will never come back. At seventy three my recall button is definitely not a Total Recall button, and being computer illiterate does not help the matter any. I know most of this trivia does not matter to most readers, but it helps me to be able to vent. In the words of Earnest Hemingway, “Writing is simple, you just sit down at a typewriter and bleed” and when you craft something nice and lose it all it is almost terminal.