HEALTH UPDATE: Diabetes Management

Hello Jp Here

I have been a diabetic diagnosed since 2007 I'm sure I was diabetic before that but that is when I am the official diagnosis. Over the years I have worked very hard to maintain and reduce the effects of diabetes on my body on my playing and then my overall lifestyle. I'm writing this blog post today because it's very important to me to share information that I get because I do work very hard at keeping my health in check.

But to be honest my last A1C was horrible to me it was an 8.0 up from a 6.95 I think I was Now 60 days of that was the stress and the inactivity of the Coronavirus sanctions for lack of a better word.

No excuses but I really didn't change my diet I didn't change my medications everything just seemed off one of the things that I didn't know how to do was like many diabetics I have to wait for the doctor to figure out what my A1c is going to be and I find that very disturbing that I have to wait 4 months or 3 months at a time to figure out if my blood is turning into acid.

So I've spent the last couple weeks figuring out how to get a handle a better handle on my situation diabetes is an autoimmune disease it's chronic 99% of time it's terminal so we do the best as diabetics with the time that we have and we try to prolong our life by reducing the effects of the disease.

Now many of you who are non-diabetics you hear about how diabetics do this or that or you know diet you know exercise, but if you're not a diabetic you actually have no clue what it takes to really manage the disease and its effects.

So in light of that I'm always on a mission to learn and I also pay very close attention to what my body tells me cuz diabetes is not a one-size-fits-all disease.  How food medications, exercise, activity and stress affects a diabetic it is as individual as grains of sand or snowflakes.

LET'S BE CLEAR this article is not to be construed as any kind of medical advice or legal advice this is just me speaking about my experience with the disease and its effects.

I'm going to show you a series of screenshots although not endorsed by. I do use a very specific meter and I have for years and I believe that this meter has saved my life. It is made by Bayer or ascensia diabetes.  The name of the meter is Contourlink and I've had it in various models. 

It links to my phone. It has a great app that I can use to track carbs, medicine, activity if I want too

It automatically uploads all of my blood sugar readings into a report that I can send to my doctor.

The last time I visited my doctor I had an 8.0 A1C which means 8% acidosis in my blood. It also indicates a 183 overall average blood sugar level.

so knowing that I asked the doctor how do I calculate for my blood sugar readings the math in order for me kind of predict my A1c she told me I don't know the math but you can look it up on the internet for yourself. 

So I found out there are a couple of numbers that are fixed in the formula to figure out your blood sugar averages from your A1c. Those numbers are 28.7 and 46.7.

How you calculate your blood sugar average from your A1C is you take 28.7 and multiply it by your A1C number what you would have gotten from your doctor and then subtract from that answer 46.7 and that will give you your average blood sugars and so I did the math and there's a standard deviation in that number of about 1 to 1 and 1/2 points.

So being the engineering type that I am I wanted to be able to predict each week from my average is my A1c so I created a little spreadsheet that will allow me to calculate both and if you sign up for our mailing list on our website and put in there you'd like the spreadsheet I will send you a link to it.

I have this spreadsheet saved and bookmark right on my phone because I use Google Sheets and I'm able to just open it up punching my weekly averages,  I can see what my A1C is.   What I'm trying to do is be more proactive about the A1C even reactive right now most doctors have you be reactive to your A1c.

Now this might not work for everyone but this is what I'm doing I've also started a regimen and this is not medical advice for turmeric and I've been taking it for 7 days now and I've dropped my averages for this seven-day period From the previous 90 day. And I'm going to post some pictures from the Contour link software.

Now for me I'm taking 2000 mg of turmeric a day and what I had an accident in 2000 that damaged my hands and as a guitar player it was devastating and I have a joint pain the entire time 24/7 hand pain

Since taking the tumeric I now have pain only about half the day. Which is amazing for me because you know I've been 20 years of 24 7 365 days a year pain but also my blood sugar readings are better. I do not know that it is the turmeric specifically,  but it's the main change that I've made.

Months ago I actually I really worked on portion control in my meals I operate on a 1000 calorie deficit that is my goal everyday is the between 800 and 1000 calories more burned then I intake and it's not as hard as it would seem and I'm not starving myself either but I am eating healthy foods

What I have known in my experience with this disease is that the mental state and emotional state of being is just as important as your physical activity.  If you're a songwriter and you got insomnia from diabetes or type 2 or type 1 diabetic start right do anything you can to compensate for the over-activity that happens with the brain feeling sluggish stress gets to you the anger gets to you and I just exacerbates your number's.

But there's light at the end of the tunnel.  I don't think I'll ever cure my diabetes,  but if I can manage my diabetes with my behavior to basically interact with my lifestyle as close to a normal person without diabetes (even though I might have to put in a hundred times more work to do that), then it will be a  success

One last tidbit for type 2 diabetics actually trying to maintain their disease.  Get yourself a Fitbit. I do not care if you exercise or go to the gym you really need to track your activities in the amount of calories that you burn.

 I don't care how you burn the calories.  If you burn them in the gym 30 minutes a day or whether you burn the calories over the course of the day just in your everyday activity.

 Information is what will save your life as a diabetic.   You must have more information than what the doctor gives us an A1C lab every 3-4 months.  

Also YOU must take control of your health. 

Your doctor is a service provider; they do not rule or have 100% understanding of how the disease is affecting you and your life so by having accurate information and sharing that with your health Team you are going to have a better quality of life. I know that mine has improved immensely.

I have some ideas that I'm working on to help make life easier for busy type 2 diabetics. I'm trying to get the Fitbit & Ascensia company's together... in order to get those two apps to talk to each other.  I've got a pretty good system of exchanging data from one to the other, but if they could make them talk to each other it will change the game for all diabetics.

Thanks again for letting me talk about this and reading about it.  I know it's not really got a lot to do with music.  I am sure you guys are probably patiently awaiting for this next album which I am happy to say is really underway.    

Again I want to thank you for all your continued support over the last 20 years of the John-Paul Jones Group and my 40 years in music.