Diabetes Everyday

Living your best life with diabetes. Toby Smithson provides professional guidance with personal experience.

You are here: Home / Archives for Medications and Monitoring Health

Medications and Monitoring Health

Is Insulin Right For Your Diabetes?

By Leave a Comment

Insulin is the most effective treatment for high blood sugar levels but is often reserved as a “last resort” for treating type 2 diabetes. Are these reservations justified? What if your doctor recommends insulin for you?

Hi again….I’m Toby Smithson with Diabetes Everyday hoping to make the diabetes management part of your life easier and even more effective. Please subscribe to this channel and visit my website diabeteseveryday.com for more of everything related to successful diabetes management and make sure to sign up for my newsletter.

Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel

I’ve been thinking this past week about insulin, and I’ve been thinking about insulin because I participated in a fantastic podcast about the story of insulin. I’m a big fan mostly because the availability of insulin as a treatment for type 1 diabetes has literally kept me alive for the past 50 years. Historical references to diabetes may date back to as long as 5,000 years ago. And for thousands of years, diabetes meant one thing – certain death, mostly for children. The purification of insulin for clinical use is only approaching its 100th anniversary, and it is a remarkable story. You can find that podcast here and you can find me at about the 33-minute mark….I was not around 100 years ago so it takes the story a while to catch up to me.

Insulin For Type 2 Diabetes

But let’s talk about insulin for type 2 diabetes…..insulin for you. Obviously, I won’t speculate on whether insulin is the right treatment for you – that’s between you and your doctor. But I can tell you that if your doctor recommends insulin there are excellent reasons you should consider it. Considering that insulin is exactly how people regulate blood sugar naturally it is arguably the best solution for managing diabetes.

Here are some common concerns, starting with one that’s simply not true.
  • Insulin does not cause or promote diabetes complications. If you’ve heard that, sorry- it’s simply wrong. The consistently high blood sugar levels of unmanaged diabetes over time causes complications, not insulin
  • Technically, insulin does not cause weight gain. It is true that weight gain is common when people begin taking insulin, however, because you will likely store glucose more efficiently instead of eliminating excess glucose in urine.
  • Insulin requires injections – true except that there is an option for inhalable insulin, and even if that’s not right for you, subcutaneous injections….just under the skin….aren’t so bad. I started as an 8-year-old. In some cases, insulin as a pump may be available to you, and that’s a whole new level of comfort.
  • Insulin can cause low blood sugar– now we’re down to the real concern. Insulin CAN cause dangerously low blood sugar levels, and its effect is not always predictable. That makes insulin not appropriate for some and requires more careful checking of blood sugar levels for anyone taking insulin. In the case of checking blood sugar levels, a continuous glucose monitor is a wonderful option.

Be Sure To Check Out – How To Treat a Low Blood Sugar

In type 2 diabetes insulin is often held as a last resort for treatment, and some diabetes experts think that’s not an ideal use of this effective tool for managing blood glucose. Owing so much to insulin myself, my opinion would be biased. But again, if your doctor brings it up I would just encourage you to give it fair consideration.

Be Sure To Check Out – A Simple Trick To Better Manage Blood Sugar

Insulin has saved hundreds of millions….maybe even billions… of lives over the past 100 years. That’s hard to ignore.

You May Also Enjoy

The Story of Insulin

By

I had a wonderful opportunity to participate in a podcast at Game Changers in Medicine about the “story of insulin.” It is a fascinating story, and my role was to represent the millions and millions of people with type 1 diabetes (mostly children) who were literally given the gift of life by the discovery, isolation and purification of this hormone. You can listen to the story here, and you’ll find me at about the minute mark.

How To Treat a Low Blood Sugar

By

A low blood sugar — hypoglycemia — can pose an immediate threat to our life. Defined as a reading below 70 mg/dl, low blood sugar levels need to be treated effectively and quickly.

Hi, everybody, Toby Smithson here with Diabetes Everyday. I just wanted to have a chat, a conversation with you in today’s video, because I see this as one of those Diabetes Everyday moments. What I wanted to talk to you about was lows, having low blood sugars, which is blood sugar of 70 or below. I’ve heard this a lot from my patients and it was an aha moment when I had a low just this morning. I wanted to present this information to you.

Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel

What is your low go-to treatment? Chocolate? Juice? Honey? or Sugar?

What I hear from my patients a lot is that they’ll grab things like really delicious favorite foods like Baby Ruth bars or a snack size of Three Musketeers, some kind of chocolate bar when they’re having a low. I know personally from experiencing lows that this is an opportunity that you want to have something really tasty. But we know that having something like a milk chocolate bar or chocolate will not raise your blood sugars quickly enough. It’s going to take a while because of the fat content in there. It’s going to take a while and then you’re going to start getting on a vicious cycle because then your blood sugars will probably be elevated and then you’re going to be fighting higher readings.

Be Sure To Check Out – What Can I Eat When My Blood Sugar is Out of Range?

That’s why we always say specifics. Half a cup of juice or a tablespoon of honey or a tablespoon of sugar. One of the little tricks is to try to have things that you’re not like dying to have, wanting to have really badly like chocolate. I got tired of having glucose tabs, so I started with something else that was in between, Smarties. What I know because of checking before and after having lows is that two of these little packs are 12 grams of straight carbohydrate. There’s no fat in here, so it will raise my blood sugar to the appropriate level, a safe level, above 70 when I’m having a low.

I know that that works for me. But I too started getting bored of, “Ugh, I’m low. I have to have that same old Smarties or whatever.” I thought, “Ooh, let me try something else.” I went with marshmallows because that spoke to me that, “Ooh, that’s really good.” I haven’t had marshmallows in a really long time and looking at the ingredients, I could treat a low with the marshmallows. What I found out is that if I used what the label says for a 15-gram portion, my blood sugars skyrocketed. They did go up, but too high.

The Trial and Error

What I found out from trial and error is that one marshmallow, which is only six grams of carbohydrate, according to the label, will raise my blood sugar. Sometimes, the six-gram carbohydrate portion of a marshmallow may raise it too high.

My message to you here with trial and error: Make sure you’re checking before and 15 minutes after, 20 minutes after to see how your blood sugar is affected by the treatment for a low.

A Tip For That Quick Grab

Something else that I did to help me out because you know when you’re low, that your mind isn’t really connecting. I could feel that it’s not connecting and it’s like a fright/flight theory that you’re just like rushing, “What can I have to bring my blood sugar up because it feels so uncomfortable?”

I actually put together in my pantry a little bin with things to treat my low so that I don’t have to put any extra thought into the process that I go right to this bin and I know that I could find things to treat my low. These are also non-perishable items that I put in here so I could also go to this bin for when I’m packing for a trip or when I’m going out and about. For my purse, I’m always carrying something to treat a low just in case.

Be Sure To Check Out – Best Snacks for Diabetes

Just wanted to give you that message and hope this helps out.

Cheers to your health.

You May Also Enjoy:

How Do You Use Apple Cider Vinegar For Diabetes

By

The claim has been around for a long time, that apple cider vinegar works miracles for blood sugar. What’s the real story? Does apple cider vinegar lower blood glucose levels? Is apple cider vinegar a treatment for diabetes? Watch and see.

HI, I’m Toby Smithson with DiabetesEveryDay where we discuss best practices for managing diabetes along with motivation and inspiration. The month of January tends to bring resolutions to the forefront of people’s to do list and there are lots of ideas on the web offering advice about diabetes management. Let’s take a look at one that is receiving some discussion- Can apple cider vinegar can help manage diabetes? 

There has been some research done on apple cider vinegar but the studies were either on rats or on very small number of human participants to make any conclusions. In those studies, they did find a lower blood sugar effect after consuming 1.5 – 2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar mixed with a cup of water with meals saw small reductions in blood sugar levels.

While there is no risk in using apple cider vinegar as part of your meal because it contains no carbohydrate or calories, there are some things we need to watch out for.

Use caution for those home remedy websites and recommendations of preparing an apple cider beverage with honey. Honey is a concentrated sweet and will raise your blood sugar reading. If you are using apple cider vinegar, definitely dilute it in water because of its acidity it can irritate your gastrointestinal tract from the enamel on your teeth to your stomach.

The biggest negative side effect relates to your expectation. The study findings are not strong enough to make the claim that apple cider vinegar will help lower blood sugar levels for all people with diabetes. And the effect on blood sugar cannot be significant enough to call apple cider vinegar an actual treatment for diabetes.

Be careful of quick fixes for diabetes management. The literature clearly recommends eating a balanced diet of complex carbohydrate, lean protein and healthy fats along with physical activity because that’s what really works.

Until next time, here’s to your health.

Thoughts About Blood Sugar Monitoring

By

I read a great article recently that included blood glucose testing, but parts of the article really bother me.  While the article was essentially about whether health tracking is useful with all of the new apps available for users, one angle of the article was about how unsuccessful home blood sugar monitoring has been over a 3o year period. The author called people with diabetes “early adopters” of health tracking, and pointed out that most hate it.

First, a 2001 study found only 5% of people with diabetes actually do daily testing, 65% admitting to testing less than once a month.  More concerning to me, the reason people don’t test is that they see testing as an enemy – out to remind them how poorly they’re doing. Add to this a move in some circles to stop reimbursements for testing supplies based in large part on evidence that people with diabetes don’t use testing to change behavior, and a big problem is brewing. There is a terrible disconnect within our medical system.

I know how incredibly valuable testing is….with type 1 diabetes it’s simply impossible to work things out by guessing. But, testing can be valuable for type 2 diabetes too if you use the tool to get relevant information, and to make changes. Here’s an example. My friend Mike often tests after meal just to see how a certain food has affected his blood sugar. His behavior changes aren’t major – if his blood sugar goes too high he knows that particular food doesn’t fit his metabolism well. This is how blood sugar testing can serve to improve control over time, and improved control means better health.

Contrast this to another friend who has been prescribed one test each day, first thing in the morning. Essentially, a fasting glucose 365 times a year. Guess what? Her blood sugar is virtually the same every day. There is no data upon which to make changes, and there’s no data that could possibly be any more valuable than an A1C every 3 to 6 months. This is a waste of resources and a burden on my friend, but I can’t convince her to stop because this is what her general practitioner has told her to do. She hates it, of course.

Here’s the problem. Medical policy makers in government programs and with private insurers do not provide adequate coverage for education and support time with diabetes educators.  More time with educators could result in a better understanding of testing, and less anxiety about doing it because a purpose could be defined. Some of the responsibility is with patients. But, most people want to do better with self management, and this complex condition does require active participation by those of us who stand to benefit the most – patients. I hope our members at DiabetesEveryDay will share their thoughts about testing with me. I am concerned about this marvelous tool being so misunderstood by those who could gain so much.