Miracle Cures

There are NO cures; just better ways of treatment and management. Accept it, and get on with it.

Please read this link recommending Glucobate, the latest miracle cure for diabetes. After you read the glowing reports, make sure you click on the FAQs for more details:

Glucobate

[note 15th April 2009 : Today I found that the original link shown below no longer works, so I have substituted the UK copy of the original FTC page]
http://wemarket4u.net/glucobate/index.html

I was going to write a detailed comment on my experiences on the net with scam artists, herbal cures and weirdos. I reckon the FTC has done a brilliant job with that site, so I'll leave it at that.

Remember that motto "Be Smart, Be Skeptical" every time you read advertising or testimonials where someone is trying to sell you something - especially if it's supposed to improve your health.

Test everything through the filter of your own common sense. That applies wherever you read it or hear it - including here.

Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter

Breakfasts

See also Travelling With Type 2

For various reasons, I'm one of the many type 2's for whom breakfast is the hardest meal of the day to get right. The traditional "heart-healthy" breakfast of cereal, milk, juice and toast is a disaster for my blood glucose levels. So, after much experimentation I came up with these ideas.

Breakfasts With Minimal Carbs

1. Egg. The humble egg can be cooked in so many ways: poached, fried, normal omelette (beat it lightly while cooking), fluffy omelette (separate, whip the white with a spoonful of water, fold back with filling and yolk), scrambled with a little milk, frittata (sort of a heavier omelette with filling), and baked. Use fillings, cheese, fresh herbs if you can, dried if you can't.

2. Meat. Bacon, Ham, small steak, hamburger patty, chicken, prosciutto, hot dogs and so on. Can be fried, grilled/broiled, chopped after cooking and added to omelettes, frittata or scrambled eggs.

3. Fish. Smoked, canned or fresh. Can be poached, fried, as a mornay (easy on the thickener), mixed in a stir-fry etc. Same for seafood.

4. Mushrooms. Small ones can be sliced and cooked with onions, herbs , garlic etc and a little oil and a smidgin of flour for a gravy. Large ones can be filled with bolognaise or napoli sauce (or whatever you like), topped with grated cheese and baked in the oven. Also another good omelette filling.

5. Casseroles and stews - beef, lamb, chicken, mince (ground beef) etc can be pre-prepared and divided into individual breakfast sized serves. Put them in small plastic containers in the freezer and zap one in the microwave for breakfast. Check the carbs in the recipe to check suitability. Beef bourgignon, Irish Stew (watch the spuds), chicken fricassee, whatever your favourite is. Always test at 1 hr the first time with casseroles - thickeners are usually the carb culprits for high BGs.

6. Leftovers - slices of roast meat, re-heated or cold, re-heated chops etc

Bon Appetit.

Alan, T2, Australia
Everything in Moderation - Except laughter

Painless Pricks

One of the common objections to testing blood glucose more frequently is a fear of pain from testing. If you are suffering pain when you test, you are doing it incorrectly.

I learned this the hard way in my first year after diagnosis. I hope it helps you.

Do not use an alcohol swab to clean the test site unless there is no other choice. Repeated use of alcohol over time for that purpose will dry out the site and may cause skin problems.

If possible wash your hands in warm soapy water, rinse well and shake them to get the circulation going. Check your lancet-holder; it should be adjustable. Mine is a Soft-clix, made by Roche and is usually painless. That brand has an excellent reputation among the diabetics I know, but any good lancet device should do the job. I get an occasional tiny sting and it lets me know if it's getting blunt sometimes, but I tested over 5000 times in the first four years after diagnosis, before I stopped counting, without any trauma. That's from a guy who was, and is, needle-phobic.

Start with the second lowest setting (1 or 1.5), hold it firmly against your skin on the side of a finger near the tip. Don't flinch when you release the button. The button releases a spring-loaded tiny needle which makes a tiny hole in your skin and instantly retracts. Using the side of your finger-tip has two advantages: there are less nerve-ends than on the pads, and it doubles the number of test-points so you can rotate through the positions.

Massage gently (milking a cow) until a drop of blood forms sufficient to put on the test strip. If this setting doesn't provide an adequate quantity, move the lancet setting up one notch for the next one. If you got a large sample and it hurt a little, go to the lower setting.

And that's all there is to it. Sometimes it helps to shake your hands a little more, or warm them up if it's cold.

The manufacturers advise changing the lancet needle every time; I change mine when I remember or if it gets a bit blunt. I have never had an infection as a result of doing that, nor have I ever heard of it happening from the people I talk to on the web. You do what you are comfortable with, subject to doctor's orders.

Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter

Up-dated 10th July 2009