Sensible Splurge Friday!

Treating type two diabetes symptoms with vitamins, how to sabotage your exercise goals and poor Don Lapre.

But first, 

The Numbers:

• Fasting Blood Glucose Level:  105 mg/dl.  High all week. 
• Weight:  187 lbs.  Almost 186 1/2 lbs, but honest numbers here.
• Exercise:  45 minute bike ride.  
• Mood.  6.0.  The Charming Mrs. SWMBO's father passed away today.   So long, Frank.  You will be missed.  Fortunately she did talk with him yesterday. 

• Lunch:  Oatmeal with craisins and make with herbal cinnamon/apple tea.
• Lunch:  Leftover chilli and pasta.  Always tastes better as a leftover. 
• Dinner. Grilled chicken and vegetables.  And a margarita.  It's Friday.
• Snacks:  A few almonds and some grapes. 

Can Vitamins Treat Type 2  Diabetes?

I have always been suspicious of vitamins being used to treat medical problems.  To me it always smacks of a late night infomercial touting miraculous results by simply swallowing a pill once day.  The vitamins we need are easy to get in the foods we eat, truth be told.  The company pushing the miraculous results disappears from late night cable TV and is forgotten about except for little article that shows up a few years later announcing some agreement with a governmental agency to pay fine for fraud.  The one I remember most was case involving poor Don Lapre. 

Anyway, an English pharmacist, Sturat Lindsey,  received a diagnosis that his chronic foot pain was neuropathy, nerve damage, caused by undiagnosed type 2 diabetes.  Neuropathy can be treated, but never cured, and is common in patients with uncontrolled t2d.  The usual treatment is to prescribe a type of sedative to lessen the pain.  The idea of spending the rest of his life in a sleepy haze was not appealing, so began to learn and research the cause of his problems. 

He learned that type 2 diabetics often suffer from a severe deficiency in vitamin B1, thiamine.  The neuropathy he had was similar to beriberi, which is caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin B1.  The treatment for beriberi is to take B1 supplements. 

He also read that t2d'ers are also deficient in other B vitamins as well as vitamins C and D.  According to Mr. Lindsey,  "This can cause most of the symptoms of Type 2 diabetes, which include: polyneuropathy, nephropathy (kidney damage), retinopathy (eye damage) and eventually heart failure."

Ah, the joy of type 2 diabetes.

He decided not to take the usual drugs prescribed for his symptoms by his physician and instead went on a regimen of vitamin supplements to replace the deficient vitamins.  While his doctor did not approve of his choice he was interested in the results. 

The vitamin therapy worked.  The vitamins mitigated the pain of his neuropathy.  If he goes off the vitamins, the pain comes back quickly.  I should note his blood glucose levels remain high.  You can read about it here.

Maybe poor Don Lapre was not so far wrong.  Still wrong though.

Don't Sabotage Your Exercise Goals.  

I still like Nike's approach from long ago, just do it. The was Jack LaLanne's advice, too, more or less. If you need some help to get your mind right to exercise, try the tips here.  Then just do it, or at least do something.  It's a plan that works every time for just about everything.