Blog

Ok so just back from a normal morning of getting up past the alarm, finding the 17 year old son was going to school late so I had to take the 11 year old instead of him, getting myself, the 11 year old and the 2 year old ready to go out the door, battling rush hour to get the 11 year old to school, pulling into the truck lane to get to the shops to do the weekly food shopping before the man coming to fix the air conditioner calls to say he is on the way ( as of course I have nothing to do in my day and can happily sit around waiting all day until he comes, coz they can't give you a precise time they are coming – more fool me I forgot their lives are SOOO much busier than mine), and get to the shops, toddler in the trolley- check; green bags for shopping – check; shopping list – check....oh oh....blood glucose – yep you got it – check! Of course I am now hypo, standing in the aisle about to start shopping, toddler ready to go, people wondering why I have a little machine ( is it a pager??) and am pricking my finger at 9 am on a Friday morning in Foodland.

So a few lollies later and a little moment and I am off and running again. Now here is the thing, is it motherhood that makes me able to multi task like this? Yes I think it is. But I also think that diabetes actually grows our brains bigger. Now this is not based on any scientific research, papers from experts, or sitting through one of the many diabetes conferences I have attended since starting work in diabetes a decade ago. Nope, this is based on pure experience – of my life and observation of the many thousands of people with diabetes I have had the pleasure of talking to over the years.

Is it only me or does it seem people with diabetes fit a very large amount of additional thinking, considering, debating, deciding, correcting and worrying in our day, than those without diabetes? The above scenario is just one of hundreds that happen each and every day for a person with diabetes. I have also noticed that people with diabetes, in particular those who grow up with type 1 diabetes, are high achievers. It seems we get things done!

I think that having to consider so many things in every day, not being as carefree as others, thinking about your body and the impact of all the choices we make, as well as dealing with the roller coaster, the worries and fears, the hassles and sadness that can come along, make our brains open to so much more than people who don't have to think about these things. We know our bodies and we know what it is like to feel like you have not got control of your body. A hypo is something you can not possibly understand unless you have experienced it....we can try to explain it, but I don't believe it can ever be relayed properly how scary it can be during a hypo. This alone is an extra worry that can mess with your brain.

So if anyone ever says that diabetes can make your memory go, can lessen your capacity to do a task, or carry out a job, or be responsible for something – that is total rubbish. I guarantee you that when they woke up, ate without even thinking about the carb content of their breakfast, showered and cruised off for the day, their brain had done less than half what a person with diabetes would have done – and I rest my case. But I am saying this in a positive light – we get to have bigger brains! And you know what, what matters in life is that you have the gift of having a life – that a life well lived is all it is about, diabetes or not. So grab your blood glucose monitor, dial up your insulin pen, check the carbs in that piece of cake and feel proud that you are in fact growing your brain!

k so just back from a normal morning of getting up past the alarm, finding the 17 year old son was going to school late so I had to take the 11 year old instead of him, getting myself, the 11 year old and the 2 year old ready to go out the door, battling rush hour to get the 11 year old to school, pulling into the truck lane to get to the shops to do the weekly food shopping before the man coming to fix the air conditioner calls to say he is on the way ( as of course I have nothing to do in my day and can happily sit around waiting all day until he comes, coz they can't give you a precise time they are coming – more fool me I forgot their lives are SOOO much busier than mine), and get to the shops, toddler in the trolley- check; green bags for shopping – check; shopping list – check....oh oh....blood glucose – yep you got it – check! Of course I am now hypo, standing in the aisle about to start shopping, toddler ready to go, people wondering why I have a little machine ( is it a pager??) and am pricking my finger at 9 am on a Friday morning in Foodland.

So a few lollies later and a little moment and I am off and running again. Now here is the thing, is it motherhood that makes me able to multi task like this? Yes I think it is. But I also think that diabetes actually grows our brains bigger. Now this is not based on any scientific research, papers from experts, or sitting through one of the many diabetes conferences I have attended since starting work in diabetes a decade ago. Nope, this is based on pure experience – of my life and observation of the many thousands of people with diabetes I have had the pleasure of talking to over the years.

Is it only me or does it seem people with diabetes fit a very large amount of additional thinking, considering, debating, deciding, correcting and worrying in our day, than those without diabetes? The above scenario is just one of hundreds that happen each and every day for a person with diabetes. I have also noticed that people with diabetes, in particular those who grow up with type 1 diabetes, are high achievers. It seems we get things done!

I think that having to consider so many things in every day, not being as carefree as others, thinking about your body and the impact of all the choices we make, as well as dealing with the roller coaster, the worries and fears, the hassles and sadness that can come along, make our brains open to so much more than people who don't have to think about these things. We know our bodies and we know what it is like to feel like you have not got control of your body. A hypo is something you can not possibly understand unless you have experienced it....we can try to explain it, but I don't believe it can ever be relayed properly how scary it can be during a hypo. This alone is an extra worry that can mess with your brain.

So if anyone ever says that diabetes can make your memory go, can lessen your capacity to do a task, or carry out a job, or be responsible for something – that is total rubbish. I guarantee you that when they woke up, ate without even thinking about the carb content of their breakfast, showered and cruised off for the day, their brain had done less than half what a person with diabetes would have done – and I rest my case. But I am saying this in a positive light – we get to have bigger brains! And you know what, what matters in life is that you have the gift of having a life – that a life well lived is all it is about, diabetes or not. So grab your blood glucose monitor, dial up your insulin pen, check the carbs in that piece of cake and feel proud that you are in fact growing your brain!

Deep relaxation and meditation are very natural and very powerful activities.

Meditation is the method of bringing a scattered, disorganised mind into a state of peace, quiet and tranquillity. It is about focus and calmness. You might wonder how you manage that when you have to fit a few dozen blood glucose checks or more in a week; multiple injections or pump changes and bolus corrections; navigate medication mazes; and deal with the usual run of the mill tasks of daily life! I know that every tiny little moment of checking my blood or changing my set comes as an interruption in my busy life running 2 diabetes services and looking after 3 healthy boys! Time is of the essence and I have also had people tell me that the 10 seconds they need to stop and check their blood glucose becomes a chore – you would not think 10 seconds would feel like that – but it can and it does.

Taking time out for relaxation, activitites that make you feel grounded and calm and even meditation, can really help. These things help us to realise that life is about the here and now; that the things we worry about, that we can not predict and that are not here right now, and may never even happen – do not matter so much, so we can put those worries away somewhere and enjoy being in the moment. It also helps you to realise that we need to treasure each and every day we have.

The word meditation, is derived from two Latin words : meditari (to think, to dwell upon, to exercise the mind) and mederi (to heal).

You might think meditation is a worship or prayer. But it is not this.

A focus is used, such as a candle flame, a Mantra or the rhythm of the natural breath. During mediation it is normal for our mind to wander off again and again, but you learn to gently bring your mind back to the subject of concentration.  In this way, Meditation means awareness. Whatever you do with awareness is meditation. “Watching your breath” is meditation; listening to the birds is meditation. As long as these activities are free from any other distraction to the mind, it is effective meditation.

When you live with diabetes and the every day stress of life, mediation can be an effective way of calming your mind and giving you focus. It can help you to feel more peaceful and more able to keep managing on a day to day basis.

Traditionally, yoga describes that to achieve true states of meditation you must go through several stages. Commonly today, people can mean any one of these stages when they refer to the term meditation. Some people learn only concentration techniques, some relaxation and so on. There are many misconceptions concerning meditation. However all forms of meditating, where we are focusing and calming our minds, can have great benefits for overall health and wellbeing.

Methods such as “Mindfulness Meditation” are being used by doctors and a range of health professionals in managing illness and disease, anxiety and depression.

Meditation has three stages: one, Concentration, two, Contemplation, and three, Meditation (the state reached when the meditator is no longer aware of meditating). For health purposes, it is enough to reach a state where the mind is quiet and steady, the respiration calm and balanced, and the feeling is that of deep peace. With regular practice, this may be achieved, greatly benefiting the overall mental and emotional state.

You can purchase many tapes and CD´s , books, videos and DVD´s to teach you how to meditate in way that suits you. Many people find breathing techniques one of the easiest ways to meditate.

Sometimes the stress of dealing with diabetes can feel more difficult than the disease itself. Meditation is a simple, easy-to-learn tool that can help you feel more in control even when facing the life-changing challenge of diabetes. Meditation is highly effective at calming stress, and has been found to lower blood sugar levels and blood pressure, improve eating disorders and fend off the tendency toward depression and poor sleep so often associated with diabetes.

Mindfulness meditation, where you simply follow your breath and sensations arising in the body with curiosity and appreciation, without trying to change anything, soothes the nervous system and directly improves the symptoms of diabetes. A study, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, found that meditation lowers blood pressure.

Mindfulness meditation assists with depression and sleep. Mindfulness meditation improves your coping skills. Researchers at the University of Louisville found that mindfulness meditation soothed depression in study participants, while another study conducted by the University of Kentucky found that transcendental meditation (TM), in which participants work with a mantra, or repeated sound, word or phrase, helped people sleep better. A study at Indiana State University found that mindfulness meditation helped obese women cut down their weekly binge-eating episodes from 4 to 1, thus reducing their risk for developing metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

Meditation is an effective stress reducer. Constant stress wears down the body and compromises health, not a good thing for anyone managing diabetes. Your adrenal glands respond to stress signals from the hypothalamus and pituitary by releasing the fight-or-flight hormones adrenaline, which increases your heart rate and raises blood pressure, and cortisol, which takes sugar stored in the fat and liver and puts it into the blood, thus raising blood sugar levels.

Under normal conditions these stress-activated hormones are protective, surging momentarily to assist the body in coping with stress, then things return to normal and the adrenals move into rest-and-restore mode. When stress becomes chronic, though, it is as if the adrenaline switch is stuck in the “on” position. Cortisol surges in the body and puts you at risk for all kinds of health problems, including heart disease, insomnia, depression, central obesity and diabetes. The benefits of meditation are cumulative: the more often you practice, the more adept you will be at shifting your focus to healthful states. Meditation can be practiced anywhere; it doesn’t require any special equipment — just a willingness to sit quietly and notice what is happening in your body without judging it or trying to change it: awareness alone helps to improve your health. Find a time and place where you won’t be disturbed to begin a practice. Start with 10-15 minutes and work up to 30-40 minutes.

Ahhhhhh take a deep breath; prick your finger; have your insulin; take another breath and treasure the day.

As a long term “diabetic” “person with type 1 diabetes” “pancreatically challenged person” or whatever you may like to call it, I have also battled a life long war with weight….I am one of those lucky people who got not only the gene that led to type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune problems, but the “fat” gene – lucky old me.  I am wondering how many more of me there are out there? I imagine there are many of you.

This has meant that at various times of my life I have been slightly pudgy ( a good term for a 10 year old girl with “puppy fat”), quite overweight ( a good term for an adolescent with type 1 diabetes, really does heaps for the way you feel about yourself and the fitting in with everyone that can be so hard for young people with diabetes), fat (an often said term by young men when out and about as a young woman who is overweight and does wonders for your self esteem- not), overweight (the doctor when you hop on the scales – why do ALL doctors, even those to whom weight is irrelevant in their job ask you to get on the damn scales?), obese (now this one hits home hard when you have had your first baby and in response to post natal depression and a total lack of ability to control type 1 diabetes post baby and breastfeeding for the first time, you eat yoursefl silly) and finally “curvy” (by a loving husband that wants something to hang onto!)

As a now 43 year old woman who is proud of having had 3 beautiful children despite type 1 diabetes, still has her own legs, eyes and kidneys and is travelling well despite a number of health issues, I am trying to embrace my body. Yes I am still carrying weight from my now 2 year old son, but I am trying hard to love my body and thus myself.I am also a lover of chocolate and having given up many foods during my life long battle, I have now given this up – maybe it is temporary, maybe this week I will break and have some, who knows?

Here is the dialogue – “If I can just l lose 5 kilos….10 kilos…..life will be so much better, I will feel so good” – sound familiar??

But will it? And how much will I go through to get there? Is this yet another trick that keeps us ever yearning for more? Like the need for shiny shiny cars, houses and designer babies, is the battle of the fat just another part of this mythological perfect life?

Wouldn’t it be nice if life were simply about nothing but life? You know what  I mean? Like getting up and getting food for the day, hunting and gathering and storing this, spending time with your people, looking after the fire and keeping things safe – maybe life like it is on “Survivor” is what we humans are really all about.

As a person with type 1 diabetes, losing weight means constant vigiliance on the carbohydrates, to reduce insulin and thus lose weight; constant vigilance on the insulin to deal with hypos not wanted but commonly coming as carbs and weight drop off; constant vigilance to deal with exercise made pointless in the weight loss battle by those nasty hypos….and many many choices. Weight, fat and body become all consuming in an attempt to stop consuming.

At the moment, each time I eat I am trying to see it as a choice. I can choose to have processed foods, chocolate and the things that tend to become habitual for me and which tell me that they “make me feel good” – what a lie that is, such a temporay high! OR I can choose to have some fresh fruit, light crackers, a handful of nuts, sugar free jelly and low fat yoghurt, a large salad and some fish – and really genuinely feel good about that, if not a little deprived.

The problems come when this has to be maintained in the long run to keep the weight at bay and as I get older this gets harder.

So here I sit cup of tea in hand, bowl of strawberries and cherries beside me, hoping that chocolate will not rear its head this week and that I can stay off the scales for a day – seems the battle will continue….let’s see if I can be happy with wherever I am today, here and now, alive and lucky, slightly pudgy, somewhat fat, a little bit overweight, not necessarily obese, cuddly and curvy, a wonderful survivor and definitely, most definitely, happy.