Written 6/03/2011
As of today, I am in the process of getting myself acclimatized to the upcoming return-to-work after more than a month of hiatus. I know there is no point in blogging about this but somehow, I find myself typing out this piece because it makes me happy sharing with whoever is interested my experiences. I was pretty much busy about a few things the last couple of weeks. I practiced on php/mysql web development and designs. I am still studying cms designs like joomla and drupal. These are not school-based studies, I am studying them for my own self.
I did some close monitoring of my blood sugar levels while experimenting with exercises and diets. My intention was to determine which types of exercises/diets are well-suited for pre-diabetic people like me. I found out that I did not have to move the whole day to lower my sugar, that I did not have to completely eradicate carbohydrates from my meals, and that being diabetic is not the end of my world.
I am pretty lucky that I was found to have diabetes at a time when there are so available and cheap resources and monitoring gadgets that can help you control blood sugar. Imagine how it must have been at the turn of the century if you were found to be diabetic. Perhaps you were told to completely pull out carbohydrates from meals, or reduce meals significantly. And how did people monitor their sugar outside the Doctor’s clinic in those days? I am curious to know.
My mother had diabetes and suffered from all its consequences due to denial and negligence. I could not blame her - she belonged to the old school who thought that diabetes is just a modern-day term used by Doctors to make more money out of you - and despite my health care background she got offended when I told her to move more and exercise more. Such advise she took offense with, accusing me of suggesting her to be lazy. She thought that cleaning the house was enough exercise. (It could, if you did not take regular soda every meal). It was too late when the truth sunk in and by that time, she was already undergoing dialysis and suffering from bedsores. Her experience is one that gives me nightmares even today. In her last days, I just prayed that she went quickly because of the suffering and pain she had gone through.
And that is perhaps the reason why I am so careful with my own diabetes. This is also my own crusade, to reach out to as many people as possible to tell them the consequences of diabetes and obesity. I will be very glad if there is one soul out there who would change his/her lifestyle on account of what I blog here. And that would also ease the pain of my mother, wherever she is now, perhaps.
And though most of us tend to associate type 2 diabetes (specifically) with poor diet and exercise, there is another factor we need to consider. Stress can also increase our sugar levels if we do not attend to it. This is another area that I am particular about whether a person has diabetes or not. In my many years of experience with patients, I found that even the man who has the best readings in cholesterol, sugar, vitals can still end up with a cardiac arrest or stroke mainly because of stress. Stress is a serious disease.
I have treated at least two young Doctors who were so cocksure of their good health that later were victimized by stroke. That’s probably the saddest sight I have seen. A young Doctor, in the peak of his career suddenly waking up one day under the mercy of a stranger to wipe his butt and dress him and get him out of bed. This is an image I keep picturing myself everyday. To be debilitated for any reason is a terrible, terrible prospect in life.
When they eventually regained a bit of their functions and speech, they wore these sad faces of regrets, whispering that if they could only turn back the hands of time, they would:
1. Work less and have more vacations.
2. Would not rely solely on numbers and vitals.
3. Be happy and avoid unhappy situations and people.
4. Will not hesitate doing ‘right now’ what they have dreamt and wished to do.
Modern life is very cruel to humanity. Majority of us are born to a lifetime of servitude. Not to anybody but to the system, the so-called Matrix, this lifestyle, this man-made expectations to be ‘normal’. Under the dome of this so called modern life, we are expected to be born, study early and hard, finish education, work, borrow, pay, build family, career, retire and die. This is a far cry from the primitive lifestyle of our forefathers who were expected to simply hunt for food, defend themselves and then die when it was time.
The trouble for some of us is a competitive spirit and tendency to go beyond optimal. That is part of human nature. When there is a race, we want to win it. When there is intelligence, we want to top it. When there is good looks, we want to have it. When there is wealth, we want to get a hold of it. Which is alright until we sacrifice our body through overwork, over-training, over-doing. And it breaks down as a consequence.