Insulin Bound
It is so easy to just grab a little nibble of food and not have to put too much thought into it. But, contained within every nibble, even the smallest of the nib-lets, there are carbohydrates ready to be broken down in glucose (sugar) and then in turn delivered to our cells to give us our everyday energy and power. But when you are a Type 1 diabetic as myself, you must consider every carbohydrate that enters your body. Why must I take on this grueling task of counting every last carb? Well one day my antibodies decided to gang up of my pancreas, and murdered it! Well okay, they didn't murder it, but they made it incapable of producing an extremely important protein called insulin. I like to think of insulin as the bus drivers of energy, they take the glucose from the blood and drive it up and drop it off at cells waiting for energy. What happens on the field trip days of elementary school when the scheduled bus driver is a no show? Too many high energy kids all put up into a small gymnasium with no escape. This is what happens in the blood stream; all the food that gets broken down into sugars stays in the blood stream with no insulin, it needs that delivery ride to make it to the cell!
Distinguishing Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
So we hear of diabetes being a huge health concern in the United States of America. What they don't mention that it is Type 2 Diabetes that is taking over the country, not us Type 1 folk! Type 1 and Type 2 actually stem from a completely different series of unfortunate events.
Type 1 is actually considered an autoimmune deficiency. As I stated earlier, my antibodies went all haywire and attacked my pancreas rendering it useless for insulin production. The exact reason why the antibodies get this wacko idea is still being researched. Usually antibodies attack foreign things, but hey I had this pancreas in me for 21 years before they decided to declare war. Type 1 used to be called Juvenile Onset Diabetes because typically the attack would develop between the ages of 5 and 14, but now case studies (me being one of those cases) show that it can develop into the 20's as well. So we stick to saying Type 1 these days. Type 1 diabetics are completely insulin dependent, meaning I can't take some little white pill to jump start the insulin production or anything like that. I take insulin injections throughout the day, the amount that I inject depends on several factors that I must always keep a running tab in my head of. I first count the amount of carbohydrates are in the food and drink that I am consuming. Then I investigate what kind of carbs they are and how they will break down in my body. Are they long acting carbs like the ones food in bread, grains and pasta? Or are they fast acting carbs like fructose in fruits and sweet candies? Then I consider what I am doing for that day and how active I am going to be. Everyone should eat long acting carbs in the morning as a general health rule but I must make sure that I eat long lasting carbs if I go hiking, kayaking, dirt-biking, biking or skiing. That way, I have energy that I know for a fact my body will using for extensive and active periods of time. Then I think about a few other factors like the season at hand, the daily average temperate, altitude, humidity levels and since I am blessed with being a woman, my menstrual cycle as well. Then there are the random factors such as stress or your body fighting off infections (when the antibodies are actually doing their job correctly). Believe it or not but there are all sorts of things that are body accommodates for throughout a daily basis, and when you take away something as crucial as insulin, then that is when things take a plunge for the deep end. So I use an insulin named Humalog and take injections through syringes or an insulin pump that is LITERALLY attached to my hip through a plastic 3 mm catheter that injects insulin into my interstitial fluid (fatty tissue). The insulin pump can be used for both types of diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes typically arises for lack of health self care issues. This is where the pancreas does not make enough insulin for how much the individual consumes or does not make any at all. Or their insulin does does deliver the glucose to cell properly. Type 2 usually arises in individuals who are obese or extremely overweight. We have all seen this obesity problem arising in the United States for several years so it is no surprise to me that day in and day out more and more people are being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. It was a side effect that sure to follow in suit. Some Type 2 diabetics can take medication that aids their pancreas in producing enough insulin to support their intake and this can help keep their blood sugars from staying too high. Some also take insulin injections as well but some can get away with just medication.
Type 1 is actually considered an autoimmune deficiency. As I stated earlier, my antibodies went all haywire and attacked my pancreas rendering it useless for insulin production. The exact reason why the antibodies get this wacko idea is still being researched. Usually antibodies attack foreign things, but hey I had this pancreas in me for 21 years before they decided to declare war. Type 1 used to be called Juvenile Onset Diabetes because typically the attack would develop between the ages of 5 and 14, but now case studies (me being one of those cases) show that it can develop into the 20's as well. So we stick to saying Type 1 these days. Type 1 diabetics are completely insulin dependent, meaning I can't take some little white pill to jump start the insulin production or anything like that. I take insulin injections throughout the day, the amount that I inject depends on several factors that I must always keep a running tab in my head of. I first count the amount of carbohydrates are in the food and drink that I am consuming. Then I investigate what kind of carbs they are and how they will break down in my body. Are they long acting carbs like the ones food in bread, grains and pasta? Or are they fast acting carbs like fructose in fruits and sweet candies? Then I consider what I am doing for that day and how active I am going to be. Everyone should eat long acting carbs in the morning as a general health rule but I must make sure that I eat long lasting carbs if I go hiking, kayaking, dirt-biking, biking or skiing. That way, I have energy that I know for a fact my body will using for extensive and active periods of time. Then I think about a few other factors like the season at hand, the daily average temperate, altitude, humidity levels and since I am blessed with being a woman, my menstrual cycle as well. Then there are the random factors such as stress or your body fighting off infections (when the antibodies are actually doing their job correctly). Believe it or not but there are all sorts of things that are body accommodates for throughout a daily basis, and when you take away something as crucial as insulin, then that is when things take a plunge for the deep end. So I use an insulin named Humalog and take injections through syringes or an insulin pump that is LITERALLY attached to my hip through a plastic 3 mm catheter that injects insulin into my interstitial fluid (fatty tissue). The insulin pump can be used for both types of diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes typically arises for lack of health self care issues. This is where the pancreas does not make enough insulin for how much the individual consumes or does not make any at all. Or their insulin does does deliver the glucose to cell properly. Type 2 usually arises in individuals who are obese or extremely overweight. We have all seen this obesity problem arising in the United States for several years so it is no surprise to me that day in and day out more and more people are being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. It was a side effect that sure to follow in suit. Some Type 2 diabetics can take medication that aids their pancreas in producing enough insulin to support their intake and this can help keep their blood sugars from staying too high. Some also take insulin injections as well but some can get away with just medication.
Who's got the remedy?
Every Type 1 diabetic is different, just to make it that much more complicated! Somethings may break down slightly different then it does for the next, as we also have different sensitivity levels to insulin. There a several different types of insulin that have different half-lifes and decay factors to help aid in this problem. Before I became diabetic, I would eat how ever I wanted. I am 5 feet 9.5 inches and 130 pounds so I have never had any weight issues. But now things are much different, and in a good way. I eat fruits and vegetables everyday. Rarely so I gorge on junk food now-a-days. I exercise every day by riding my bike, doing yoga or go on a hike. But most importantly, I check my book sugar often by using a blood-glucose machine that tells me how much sugar is currently in my blood, and these little guys are pretty accurate with a sigma detection of less than 1. The average non-diabetic person should have a blood-sugar reading of about 80-130. Diabetics should shoot for nothing higher than 180. My personal goal is 90-140. As stated earlier, every diabetic is different so I feel too shaky and bad with anything below about 90 so I don't like dip below that. Eating a healthy balanced diet, exercising daily, keeping clean, and checking your blood sugar often are the most important day to day happenings for a diabetic.
But even more importantly you have to be your own remedy, use doctors of course but my best medication is my knowledge organized to its greatest potential in my brain, which leads me to an extremely important point about insulin and its impact on brain functioning.
But even more importantly you have to be your own remedy, use doctors of course but my best medication is my knowledge organized to its greatest potential in my brain, which leads me to an extremely important point about insulin and its impact on brain functioning.
Insulin-sane on the Brain.
I recently read some extremely enlightening research, probably because it pertains to me in an extremely valuable way. Neuroscientists from the Woodgett's laboratory at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto Ontario study metabolism and its effects on the brain, and how insulin is extremely crucial to things such as normal and cognitive brain functions. Right away I can agree with this, when I get high blood sugars I become extremely agitated and irrational. And when I get low blood sugars I can't think straight, can't formulate sentences, will zone out on one thing for a really long time, or know that I need to check my blood sugar but get focusing on whatever I am doing at the time. These little tiny metabolic pathways are closely related to neuro pathways. Lack of insulin can also possibly lead to memory loss and learning capability. Again, I can agree with this completely as well. For instance, this past semester I was extremely stressed and I let my blood sugars run high for too long. I suffered in a few classes and couldn't remember things that I learned earlier that day. Our bodies respond to so many factors that are easily ignored or altogether not known about. The past month I am glad to say I have things on lock down and am feeling A TON better! I read this research about month ago and as you can see it shed some light on some really important things going on in my body. If you would like to read this research go here: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/33338/title/Metabolism-and-the-Brain/
Like Father, Like Daughter.
Genetics are an extremely fascinating and interesting thing. I once had a psychology teacher than told us every human is there own little cocktail drink. I feel like I do not understand psychology fully but I really got her point when she put us into terms like that. We are all different, which is also quite amazing! We get our genes from whatever our parents were carrying around and then depending on which child we are in line we get what we get and we don't throw a fit. My father is also a Type 1 diabetic, he is also a middle child and I am also the middle child. Here below I have made a small tree showing my father, his brothers and my cousins and the Type 1 diabetics between all of us.
The Family:
Type 1 diabetics are boxed in red. Uncle James has only had 1 daughter so far she has not become diabetic as of it. I do not wish it upon anyone but I am curious to see what happens. It seems as though it does a leap frog skip or something of that nature.
"Hi, I think I have Lyme disease".
The funny part of this story is that I had recently just moved back in with my father who if I would have mentioned how sick I was feeling, would have immediately knew what was going on. My whole childhood my dad would check our blood sugar often to test and see if we would come down with the diabetes, but we were always right in target and life went on. It was August of 2010 when I feel ill. As the month dragged on I felt more and more drained. I was taking full time classes and working as a full time store manager and running around all the time. I thought that I was just overbooked and running thin and that was why I was feeling so darn crappy. I was falling asleep in my favorite classes and never wanted to get out of bed. No amount of liquid could satisfy the extreme thrist that quenched my body. I was drinking any liquid possible at all hours of the day and had to urinate every .25 seconds it seemed like. Then one day I went to put on my watch and I had to move it in 2 notches smaller. I had lost a significant amount of weight is such a short period of time! At this point I knew something had to up so I summoned the almighty Google and looked up these symptoms. I came to a conclusion that I was bitten by a tick and maybe had Lyme disease. Okay I know that is so insanely silly but I had good justification; at the time I was living at my dads which has land that is irrigated plus monsoon season allows these ticks to multiply and there were plenty of ticks on the dogs, and my dog always sleeps in my bed with me. So I was pulling off ticks every night from him. I know now that the species of ticks that carry Lyme Disease are deer ticks found in the more eastern US. Anyway, I call an urgent care and claim to have Lyme Disease and end up walking out of there in tears and a blood sugar of 489. I was for sure a diabetic. I went home to my dad who immediately tested me again, still well above 400.
I spent the weekend in the hospital as electrolytes were pumped back into my body and insulin of course too. I was extremely lucky that I didn't go to sleep and fall in to diabetic-coma. Humans are energy conserving machines; if we are not getting energy to cells we first use the stored energy in electrolytes like potassium, and when those run out our body says, shed all unnecessary extra weight, then it says hey, shut it down we are not getting enough energy to the brain and sleep mode is activated.
I spent the weekend in the hospital as electrolytes were pumped back into my body and insulin of course too. I was extremely lucky that I didn't go to sleep and fall in to diabetic-coma. Humans are energy conserving machines; if we are not getting energy to cells we first use the stored energy in electrolytes like potassium, and when those run out our body says, shed all unnecessary extra weight, then it says hey, shut it down we are not getting enough energy to the brain and sleep mode is activated.
Staying Healthy, now and in the future.
There are terrible things that can happen to your body if you do not control your diabetes such as neuropathy, liver failure and pancreatic cancer. I do not want to die young so I need to try my hardest to stay healthy and make sure that I take the correct amount of insulin at all hours of the day. I believe that biotechnology will benefit diabetes in truly magical ways. Gene therapy seems like extremely likely and being a scientist myself, I would surely be willing to be a part the cure! Everyone should be healthy and we can all make little changes in our life to benefit ourselves and the planet. I still enjoy any outdoor activity and going on any adventure possible!