I think I know what is wrong with me.

[CEB]

I am always tired. Not sharp anymore. My feet are bothering me now. I had a hunch and bought a glucose meter last night. 374 before bed and 350 when I woke up this morning. I can fix this.

 

Glucophage and get the road bike out. I will need new bibs and maybe new shoes.

[DulceLabs.com]

I am always tired. Not sharp anymore. My feet are bothering me now. I had a hunch and bought a glucose meter last night. 374 before bed and 350 when I woke up this morning. I can fix this.

 

Holy moly. I feel for you, Ed. Diet and exercise can work wonders on this but you're going to see a doc right?

[Michael Wright]

Hope you get to feeling better.

[CEB]

Yes. I need a script for glucophage. I get the bike out I should drop the numbers.

[Gary75]

Every adult over the age of 40 should check their glucose levels, more so if your overweight. We work in mmol here in the UK. That's high, get to the doctors asap. Type 2 is can be a slow killer uncontrolled the same as Type 1 can. My friends wife cut her foot a couple of years ago and ended up losing it. She'd been Type 2 for years and hadn't known until she became ill with gangrene which very nearly killed her.

 

It maybe the metformin isn't enough anymore if your taking it and your still running those levels. You could need injections.

 

Feel better soon.

 

 

[CEB]

I'm not taking anything. I took metformin for a few months about 20 years ago. I was a computer programmer and lived off Mountain Dew and Jolt. My blood sugar got high and they put me the medicine. I took all the soda and concentrated sugars out of my diet and started riding a lot of bike miles. Soon my numbers got low and they took me of the medicine .... But that was 20 years ago and my diet is not that bad. All I can do is start riding again and seek treatment.

[marino]

I'm in a similar situation... I'm going to do the exams in July, but I already know that I will have to lose weight... unfortunately, riding a bike is not an option at the moment because of my bad back (and because riding a bike in Rome gets you free membership of the Kamikaze club). In fact, I've already given my bike to a friend a couple of years ago, because it was just gathering dust.

 

So I think t's time to get some kind of gym machine. Groan...

 

 

[CEB]

The traffic in Rome is insane. I would be afraid to drive a car let alone ride a bike.

[timwat]

Yes, sometimes it's serious medical stuff.

 

Last month, my GF implored me to get checked for sleep apnea. Not just really bad snoring, I stop breathing in my sleep, known as apnea "events". So I mentioned it to my PCP. Fortunately, I have great health insurance. He referred me to the Kaiser Sleep Center.

 

They made an appointment, sent me home with an unobtrusive testing device. Anything over 5 events an hour is apnea. Anything over 30 an hour is severe. I averaged 76 events an hour. And my blood oxygen level was dangerously low as a result. As one of my sons summarized it, I was basically suffocating in my sleep.

 

They provided this small, silent web-enable CPAP machine. It took a minute to get used to sleeping with it, but it cured my apnea. I now average 0.5 events an hour - essentially normal. It sends all the night's data to the mother ship every morning and summarizes over a secure web portal. Cool stuff. Kaiser paid for everything, zero deductible.

 

I feel way less fatigued, much more alert, a lot more energy, and starting to bike and walk to chip away at this spare tire I have (need to lose 30 lbs).

 

Sometimes it's medical stuff, and sometimes it's serious enough to kill you. Get checked.

 

Tim

 

 

[MathOfInsects]

I had a hunch

 

http://members.aon.at/frankenstein/images/feldman.jpg

[DulceLabs.com]

I'm in a similar situation... I'm going to do the exams in July, but I already know that I will have to lose weight... unfortunately, riding a bike is not an option at the moment because of my bad back (and because riding a bike in Rome gets you free membership of the Kamikaze club). In fact, I've already given my bike to a friend a couple of years ago, because it was just gathering dust.

 

So I think t's time to get some kind of gym machine. Groan...

 

 

Don't discount the benefits of simply walking! It's helped by back a lot and I've dropped a ton of weight. I rack up 5-15 miles a day by mixing up my routes. Seen a lot of cool nature sightings too: gators, turtles, snakes, lizards, birds, and bunnies.

 

I know walking's not the most efficient way to lost weight, but it's something I enjoy and isn't hard on my joints. I've been adding in weights and a little swimming as well, but I just really enjoy the simplicity of walking. Got a wicked farmer's tan, too!

[MathOfInsects]

Glad you're on it, CEB.

 

Tim, don't be surprised if losing some or all of the 30 pounds takes care of some or all of the apnea. I never snored in my life until I packed on 30 middle-aged pounds and started creeping up to a third and sometimes fourth glass of wine each night. (Which in turn helped add to that middle-aged weight gain.) I spent months snoring every night and waking up tired and vaguely angry every day.

 

When I cut back on the wine and went the diet-and-exercise route, the weight came off pretty fast....and the snoring magically stopped. Now, if I start to creep back up, I can tell when it's time to knuckle back down when I wake up tired and aware that I've been snoring at night. I have a threshhold of somewhere around 20 pounds overweight where the transition happens.

 

Best of luck, either way.

[Markyboard]

 

Don't discount the benefits of simply walking! It's helped by back a lot and I've dropped a ton of weight. I rack up 5-15 miles a day by mixing up my routes. Seen a lot of cool nature sightings too: gators, turtles, snakes, lizards, birds, and bunnies.

 

I know walking's not the most efficient way to lost weight, but it's something I enjoy and isn't hard on my joints. I've been adding in weights and a little swimming as well, but I just really enjoy the simplicity of walking. Got a wicked farmer's tan, too!

 

Walking is great if you make it exercise. I see some people out walking as if they're taking in artwork at a museum, thinking they're getting exercise. It's certainly better than doing nothing but if you're going to take the time try to make it count with a brisk pace or even power walking. The best part is it cost nothing and you can be at it as soon as you open your door. I started out this way several years ago and slowly turned it into a slow jog.

[Jazzmammal]

Sometimes the most innocent things can bite you hard. Years ago a friend told me about having the flu. After about a week of that he had this bad cough and was debating whether to see a doc or not. He did and was told he had double pneumonia and would not have made it through the night, he would have died in his sleep. Needless to say, that scared the crap out of him. He told me, really, it was just a cough, he almost didn't go in but something about it concerned him so he did.

 

With that in mind a few years ago I was coming off a bad cold and had a bit of a gurgling congestion in my throat when I laid down to sleep but it was not there when I was up. I saw my doc and was told I had the beginnings of pneumonia in one lung and was given antibiotics. Not as serious as my friend but still...

 

Stuff can sneak up on us and we have to be aware.

 

Bob

[Synthaholic]

In December 2014 I switched from white sugar to Truvia/Via Pure and Blue Agave. I would like to believe that it has helped my chances of not getting diabetes but I don't know.

 

BTW, it's not listed anywhere on the boxes but Truvia is from the Coca-Cola Company and Via Pure is from Pepsico. I wonder why they wish to keep that secret?

[timwat]

BTW, it's not listed anywhere on the boxes but Truvia is from the Coca-Cola Company and Via Pure is from Pepsico. I wonder why they wish to keep that secret?

 

I would guess because marketing is trying to position these artificial sweeteners as health-conscious options, and their research suggests brand association with the two titans of soft drinks isn't helpful.

[Synthaholic]

BTW, it's not listed anywhere on the boxes but Truvia is from the Coca-Cola Company and Via Pure is from Pepsico. I wonder why they wish to keep that secret?

 

I would guess because marketing is trying to position these artificial sweeteners as health-conscious options, and their research suggests brand association with the two titans of soft drinks isn't helpful.

 

I think you're right. It also shows how they are hedging their bets should peeps start getting more health-conscious (lotsa luck with that one!).

[Dave Ferris]

Bikes are great. My pride and joy is a custom Steve Potts titanium 29er MTB.

 

I haven't been on it in a few weeks as I'm back at running 6-7 days a week now. I definitely need to take a couple of days next week from the run and get back on it . I really miss it.

 

But riding on the road can be a dangerous activity, depending on where you live and ride. If you are going to ride on the road , seek out side streets and less traveled routes. If you have dirt roads, trails or rails to trails type of network, even bike paths (but heads up on those) - I would recommend that as opposed to the road competing with cars.

 

Put the widest tires your bike will accommodate for better control , especially if it starts raining - which it never does here. They do add more resistance but heck you get a better workout if you go out for 60 -90 minutes.

 

The gravel grinders as they're known (road bike with relaxed geometry that will handle wide tires for both road and light trail) and hybrids keep growing rapidly in popularity because even the hard core roadies are sick of dealing with the cars and seeing their friends get hurt or killed.

 

Dirt/gravel roads, trails. Dirt/gravel roads , trails. No cars.

 

Carlo mentioning Rome reminded of when I visited there 20 years ago. It was by far the worst city for running I've ever experienced. I would start at 7 AM and it was the "calm before the storm" but by 9 AMforget it. The streets were insane ! I can't imagine trying to ride a bike there.

 

Best with it all.

[EscapeRocks]

CEB don't mess with this.. I'm sure you know this.

 

As a type II, I have to be careful and sometimes I'm not.

 

Over the last few years I have gotten my levels down from 380 to the proper range below 100. Weight loss as well as Janumet and Glipizide twice a day got my A1C down as well.

 

It's not easy, and I always have to be careful so I don't "relapse".

 

Hang in there and take care of it.

[Joe Muscara]

Tim In talking with people while dealing with my sleep apnea, I was told that people of Asian descent tend to be more prone to it. My mom is of Japanese heritage.

 

However, I have a "moderately severe" deviated septum that makes breathing through my nose difficult at times. I think that's a big factor for me. It makes me breathe through my mouth at night and then it's downhill from there. I'm sure the apnea isn't coming from my weight...

 

CEB Yeah, get on that. You've done it before so I'm sure you can get it going again.

[16251]

My day gig for last 11 years is customer service rep at diabetes durable medical equipment co. My advice when people ask me is to say: I'm not a doctor, but you should get a nutritionist and learn about food. Sugar is obviously bad, but the real culprit is eating foods high in carbohydrates. It's energy but body can't store them very well and if you don't work them off then they turn to glucose.

 

Of course everyone here commenting about exercise and loosing weight are some other important components.

 

Good luck.

[xKnuckles]

If you can spare an hour, you may find that watching this BBC science documentary changes your life. Here are two different links, in case one of them does not work.

 

 

http://documentaryheaven.com/eat-fast-and-live-longer/

[CowboyNQ]

CEB good luck, wish you the best with your health.

[ElmerJFudd]

This getting old shite blows. Worse, the sort of jobs we have that put us in brick boxes most of the day, mostly sitting for prolonged periods of time, or if you travel for work, sitting in the car or on the train. Coffee in the gut and go, no time for a proper lunch - it can get really hard to take proper care of yourself. But we have to or it catches up with us. Good luck to all you guys as time goes on. Always try and keep your music making enjoyable. Know when to take a break, go for a walk, a bike ride. It's ok to spend time and money on yourself. Otherwise you just wind up giving it to the doctor.

[Doerfler]

The traffic in Rome is insane. I would be afraid to drive a car let alone ride a bike.

 

I got to ride in a car with Marino driving last summer. He is used to Rome traffic, a true pro.

 

I already know that I will have to lose weight...

 

You can do it Carlo. I have lost 35 pounds in the last 5 months. I feel and look a whole lot better. That's what my wife tells me anyway.

[cphollis]

Take care of #1, otherwise you won't be playing music for long.

 

I was diagnosed Type 2 five years ago. Come to find out it's largely genetic. I got religion: diet, exercise, meds, destressing. Doc says I'm wonderful now, but only if I stay on the regimen.

 

Diet: no fast carbs, plenty of protein and veggies. Exercise: 5 times a week I have to work a hard sweat: gym, running, biking, etc. Meds: Metformin, the wonder drug. Destressing: music, naturally! Alcohol: well, that's my weakness.

 

If you like living on planet earth, you make the investment.

 

-- Chuck

[Kawai James]

If you like living on planet earth, you make the investment.

 

Great line!

 

As for sugar documentaries, this one is also pretty good - it's like a 'Super Size Me' about sugar:

 

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnKO3YA4--g

 

CEB, hope you feel better soon man!

 

Cheers,

James

x

[Markay]

Ed see a Dr. The measure that matters is your Hba1c. It is a 3 month measure of blood glucose levels.

 

If your are Type 11 then here are the simple rules I followed to bring my Hba1c back to within the normal range. Cut out all carbs, rice, bread, pasta, potato etc. Once I did this I dropped 55lbs in 3 months. Basically my body eat the excess fat cells.

 

Plus my cholesterol flipped to the right way round and fell back to normal as did triglcyerides.

 

Metformin helps but the first step is to eliminate carb and sugar intake. Exercise can accelerate the process but whenI considered the amount of exercise required to burn off carbs compared to just not eating them I found it much easier to control what I eat.

 

I might add that my decision to cease consuming carbs is a life long change - each time I now look at a bowl of chips I imagine 2lbs of sugar. I wouldn't eat 2lb of sugar so why eat a bowl of chips?

 

[Doerfler]

I dropped 55lbs in 3 months.

 

Damn, Mark. I didn't even know this was physically possible. Congrats.!

See Ed, you can do it, if Mark and I can do it. Need to get your mind in the right place or it won't happen, though.

[MathOfInsects]

potato etc.

 

I just want to pipe in and say that potatoes actually got an undeserved bad rap during the Atkins craze. They are relatively low-calorie, reasonably high-protein (practically the same amount as an egg), and most of their carbohydrate load comes from a particular kind of starch ("resistant starch") that passes through unscathed, kind of like fiber does (meaning, it doesn't give the same glucose boost as digested starches). Plus they have fiber too. And they've got lots of vitamin C, potassium, B6, and other vitamins.

 

Etc.

 

Fear not the potato.

 

Potato chips, yes. Potato, no.