11/14 - World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day Cake

~~ World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day is another awareness day, which I find to be a bit puzzling. The only people who matter in the US are the wealthy, and, as members of the investor class, they are surely aware of diabetes because it is such a gold mine for all those in the medical needs predation business. There are multiple kinds of Diabetes mellitus, the classic being Type 1, once known as "juvenile diabetes". It is caused by the failure of the pancreas to produce sufficient insulin for the body to function properly. It is historically treated as "incurable" though it conceivably could fall to modern gene therapies and stem cell therapies were it not for the fact that the mere possibility of a cure terrifies the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

Treatment with insulin can help many diabetics lead quasi-normal lives, where available. Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles Herbert Best isolated and purified insulin in 1921 and 1922. The patent for insulin was sold to the University of Toronto for one dollar to prevent predatory private parties from hijacking and monopolizing the research, which Eli Lilly and Company had hinted that they might do. The idea was that anybody would be free to prepare insulin and the act was hailed as real progress in medical ethics. This, of course, didn't take place in the US where it would be a clear violation of the national religion.

Generations of US persons have been raised to worship the (sadly mythical) Invisible Hand, god of the free market or capitalist religion, according to which profits of the profit taking class must always be maximized. This is obvious from the reference above to Ethics. Religionists far prefer to speak of morals, such as the immorality of anything arguably tinged with the taint of socialism, or of things which in any way restrict or limit profits and profit taking, and the unconscionably unholy immorality of any arrangement by way of which it is remotely possible that somebody could "git somfin fer nuffin". The holy hand trembled at the above affront.

Luckily, the success of the communistic Canadian cabal was short lived and things were soon right with the world. Scientific, medical, and technological progress soon spawned enhanced and improved versions which could be patented anew by right minded "persons" and soon insulin was priced at the holy, god hand given, level of "Whatever the market will bear", oh Lord, halleluja, Amen. Sadly, however, our exalted rulers are wont to, on rare occasions, indulge in acts of seeming noblesse oblige. Such an event occurred quite recently with a seemingly humanitarian goal of indirectly reducing the cost of a handful of medicines to seniors by allowing Medicare to negotiate something resembling an for 10 whole drugs, with said negotiated prices to apply starting in 2026 or 2028, as the case may be, unless our glorious leaders regain their senses and repeal the whole thing by then. Luckily for pharma and the magic hand, insulin is not included in those 10 chosen medications, but, those who are dependent upon medicaid will see their price per dose capped. The extent to which the makers and distributors of insulin and related products will be able to recapture their lost profits from those patients who are not on medicare remains to be seen, so all is not lost, but the rentier class is concerned.

There is some read-worthy related information here, a very good graphic
https://twitter.com/hilaryagro/status/1591422421764313089/photo/1

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On this day in history:

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1680 – Gottfried Kirch discovered the Great Comet of 1680
1851 -- Moby Dick was published
1889 -- Journalist Nellie Bly started her trip around the world
1910 -- Eugene Burton Ely successfully flew an airplane off of a ship
1921 – The Communist Party of Spain was founded
1922 -- The BBC began broadcasting
1957 -- The heat bagged many high ranking mafia leaders fleeing the raid on their "Appalachian Meeting"
1960 -- Ruby Bridges became the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana
1967 -- Theodore Maiman received a patent for his ruby laser (the first laser)
1973 -- The Athens Polytechnic uprising occurred
1991 -- Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to Phnom Penh
2008 -- The first G-20 economic summit began. It was long on hot air and short on real reforms.

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Some people who were born on this day:

... I want the world to know that people like me who have returned from the half-world of mental oblivion are not forever contaminated. We have been sick.

~~ Jimmy Piersall

1567 -- Maurice, Prince of Orange, aka Maurice of Nassau, who organized the Dutch rebellion against Spain (and kicked ass).
1765 -- Robert Fulton, an engineer credited with inventing the steamboat
1797 -- Charles Lyell, geologist, premier proponent of extreme uniformitarianism
1805 – Fanny Mendelssohn, German pianist and composer
1840 -- Claude Monet, impressionist painter who liked water lillies
1856 -- Madeleine Lemoyne Ellicott, activist & suffragette
1878 – Julie Manet, author, painter, and art collector
1897 -- John Steuart Curry, painter and academic, liked Kansas
1900 -- Aaron Copland, composer, conductor, and educator
1906 -- Louise Brooks
1908 -- Joseph McCarthy, lying, red-baiting politician whose spirit has returned
1927 – Narciso Yepes, guitarist and composer
1929 -- Jimmy Piersall, bipolar baseball player and sportscaster who wrote Fear Strikes Out
1934 -- Ellis Marsalis, Jr., jazz pianist and educator best known for his kids
1936 -- Carey Bell, singer and harmonica player
1936 -- Cornell Gunter, singer (The Coasters and The Flairs)
1939 -- Wendy Carlos, keyboard & synth player, also composer, went public in 1979 with the fact that she had had gender reassignment surgery.
1943 -- Peter Norton, programmer and author, developed some utilities.
1947 -- P. J. O'Rourke, political satirist and journalist
1947 -- Buckwheat Zydeco, accordion player
1949 -- James Young, singer, songwriter and guitarist (Styx)
1954 -- Yanni, pianist, composer, and producer, alternative to sleeping pills
1954 -- Anson Funderburgh, guitarist and bandleader
1954 -- Condoleezza Rice, liar, war-monger, & war criminal who conspired to lie the US into war against Iraq

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Some people who died on this day:

The Woman is the Proletarian of the Proletariat

~~ Flora Tristan

1263 -- Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod, savior of the Kievan Rus,
1687 -- Nell Gwyn, royal mistress & more
1691 – Tosa Mitsuoki, painter
1716 -- Gottfried Leibniz, mathematician and philosopher, invented calculas
1746 -- Georg Wilhelm Steller, botanist, zoologist, physician, and explorer; has his own sea lion, sea eagle and jay
1817 -- Policarpa Salavarrieta, seamstress and revolutionary spy. Celebrated by the Day of the Colombian Woman.
1831 -- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher, author, and academic
1844 – Flora Tristan, author and activist
1915 -- Booker T. Washington, educator, essayist and historian
1916 – Saki, short story writer
1972 -- Martin Dies, Jr., another red-baiting SOB and modern US role model.
2012 -- Martin Fay, Irish fiddler (The Chieftains)

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Day of the Colombian Woman
World Diabetes Day

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Today's Tunes

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The First G-20 Meeting

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Aaron Copeland

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Ellis Marsalis, Jr

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with Bradford

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Carey Bell

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Cornell Gunter

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Wendy Carlos

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Buckwheat Zydeco

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James Young

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Anson Funderburgh

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Martin Fay (The Chieftans)

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Just for grins:

The original Wendy Carlos Switched on Bach (part 1) from the archive ((https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach1))
The part you probably think of (if you remember this at all) starts about 6:22
[video:https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach1]

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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?

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Open Thread, Nellie Bly, Monet, McCarthy, Wendy Carlos, Buckwheat Zydeco, Anson Funderburgh, Nell Gwyn, The Chieftans, Alexander Nevsky

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which was a comparison of the cost of insulin around the world
can't seem to find it now but once again america is in last place
by several orders of magnitude (more expensive)
we need socialized Pharma care badly

thanks for the buckwheat!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS
that graph was in a comment to the Weekly Watch, as I recall. It is also linked above beneath all my verbosity and above today's history.

Glad you liked the buckwheat.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

The saddest aspect of Type 2 diabetes to me is the fact it is largely preventable and can be cured...but not by medicine. Lifestyle and diet choices are needed...and you can't charge for those.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFJ_TwGAxlQ]
11 min
Type 2 diabetes can be reversed naturally, but only if you understand the basics of how type 2 diabetes became an epidemic and what were the causal factors. Dr. Jason Fung explains why the diet is the most important factor in type 2 diabetes and how we can use dietary methods to reverse type 2 diabetes. Check out my blog at https://medium.com/@drjasonfung
https://www.masteringdiabetes.org/cure-for-diabetes-type-2/

Kinda ironic featuring a cake/pie the foods which cause diabetes. I'm sure it is clip art so no criticism of you el just ironic as I said.

They may not be able to charge for diet and exercise, but they do charge (excessively) for insulin....especially in the states as your recommended graph clearly shows...
insulin costs.png

Metformin is the first drug they will prescribe, and it is a very interesting medicine. Dr Marik says it is one of the things which will help your body get rid of spike proteins. He also recommends spermidine, resveratrol, intermittent fasting and sauna as ways to get rid of the spike which is causing so many people to have longer term vax and covid effects.

Well hope everyone is feeling healthy and well.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

I know it is a solution to preventing all kinds of maladies
our friends down the street had us over for a wonderful
dinner last night - cod, scallops and steamed veggies
cured this hungry man's appetite
cooked by a real expert

cold here today, made a fire and cranked-up the boiler
only turned on one zone - radiant floor in the kitchen

enjoy your monday

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Lookout's picture

@QMS

...and nutritious. Early humans ate lots of shell fish as evidenced by all the shell mounds along our coasts and rivers.

Have a good day. Sunny and already in the 40's here.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout were the poor people's diet staple in NYC a long time ago. They fished them out of the shores of the Hudson River.

Currently oysters are very expensive in NYC, making them a rare menu item, found mainly as appetizers in upscale restaurants.

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NYCVG

Lookout's picture

@NYCVG

https://www.povertypoint.us/
Is a pre-agriculture settlement. Shellfish, fish, and other animals were the basis of their diet.

Burial mounds were common throughout the southeastern and central U.S., yet the absence of human remains at Poverty Point suggests these monumental earthworks, built by hand, were being used for other purposes.

Just as curious is the lack of domesticated plant remains found at Poverty Point. Archaeologists have found evidence of nuts, persimmons and grapes, which—along with fish, deer and other wild foods—were more than sufficient for survival. This makes sense, as the Lower Mississippi Valley is one of North America’s most fertile regions, abundant with food that was literally ripe for the picking. Foraging was a fundamental part of Poverty Point society.

So was commerce. The site was once at the center of a huge trade network. Seventy-eight tons of rocks and minerals from up to 800 miles away were brought to Poverty Point, an area built on an elevated landform, Macon Ridge, that contained no stone of its own. Its people needed this raw material to craft into weapons, tools and ceremonial items. This would have been impossible without help from faraway travelers, or locals traveling by boat to collect rocks themselves.

It is not stunning to visit like say Moundville, AL but it is much older, older than Stonehenge.

Take care in the Big Apple.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

and some other variants that are neither type one or type two are insulin dependent regardless of diet.

Diet as a solution is one of those wildly variable things because there are other forces at work besides just bad choices, one is any number of metabolic and other organ issues that can render diet less than a full solution, and another is those impoverished who live in food deserts and cannot get their hands on anything but unhealthy food.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyB-UNjt_V0
@ the 14 min mark
Dr Unwin results.png

So everyone isn't cured but if we could cure half of the T2 diabetes in the US/world that would be terrific.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@enhydra lutris but I am afraid that its significance will not be registered or might be overlooked. This malady is very complicated and complicated even more by all the anecdotal evidence. There are quite a few different kinds of diabetes, each requiring a different treatment to be generally effective. Some treatments will overlap, others won't. It takes a very good medical Dr to identify the differences. Unfortunately medical education is probably the most deficient disease that needs treatment. Profit is the primary goal of anything in our society.

Well, back to the subject at hand, adding my anecdote to the mix.

I have been diagnosed as insulin dependent type 2. I had originally fallen into the diabetes realm during the mid 90s. The first treatment was drugs to force my pancreas to produce more insulin. Didn't really do much. Metabolism looked at the increaaed insulin and said: "what is this crap, give me the good stuff." Some type 2's are resistant to some insulins, sometimes to the one their pancreas produces. Like mine.

In the late 90s I started on insulin, 2 kinds mixed in the syringe, twice a day. I found over the next 10 years that of the couple different brands that were tried, like the pen with the 2 kinds premixed, they were ineffective. So back to the syringe and mixed in the plunger.

And there I am, close to 30 years into it. As I said, I had a very good dr. I was able to talk with him and we discussed the disease. These were the early days and there were a lot of hypotheses running around, lots of confusions.

I have also found that there are different kinds of carbs that are vital to bodily functions. The processed foods show carbs in the nutrition list but I found that what they measure might be carbs but they aren't the kind that my body insists on. It wants the real stuff... sugar. I guess that 3 million years of evolution affected me a lot. Some lab in Japan that shoved in a chemical to convert corn to sugar might work great for profit but don't do much for me. I usually find the bad stuff during the night when my blood sugar level drops into the 50s. That's when I grab for the real sugar and start the yoyo. On the bright side it helps me sleep until my body stabilizes.

Along this journey as I said, I am very thankful for starting it with drs who went thru med school before the business school of medicine decided what was more important.

Sorry for the rant. This topic hits very close to home. If I might offer some advice... take care when faced with anecdotal evidence. There are many factors in play when dealing with this disease.

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Lookout's picture

@exindy

So it is more than just anecdotal. I agree it is complicated and multifactoral, however since the carb based dietary recommendation began in the 80's we had an obesity and diabetes epidemic starting at younger and younger ages.

Jason Fung uses fasting to cure diabetes as well. So we all have to manage our own health, and I'm certainly not suggesting what you should do. But if you've never explored Jason's successes you might find it fruitful. Here's one article from his blog...
https://drjasonfung.medium.com/type-2-diabetes-lets-talk-remission-69d27...

Wishing you good health.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

studentofearth's picture

@Lookout diluted with marketing messages and half-truths. The blog ended with a pitch for a company.

Innovative companies like Level2 (a health tech startup that is part of UnitedHealth Group and with which I have a partnership as expert clinical advisor) are partnering with doctors and employers across the United States to help turn this tide.

We need more providers, more payers and more employers to step up to fight type 2 diabetes this month and beyond — and we need to do this together. When we agree to combine our power to innovate and move against the status quo, we can eradicate type 2 diabetes.

For more on Dr. Jason Fung’s books — Click here.

From the tone and some of the misleading information contained I am going to assume Dr Fung has not personally edited the content. He knows this is too simplistic and plain wrong from standpoint of his training and experience with patients. He has always seemed a compassionate physician and not given to victim blaming style of medical care.

Remember that type 2 diabetes is a dietary disease and giving drugs won’t reverse it. That can only be achieved by fixing the root cause — the diet. Our body can store food energy in the form of glucose and body fat. If the storage tanks are filled and we still keep eating, the glucose will spill over into the blood. When blood glucose rises, that’s type 2 diabetes. Think of a sugar bowl that you keep putting sugar into. At some point, it all overflows.

If the problem is simply too much glucose in the body, then the solution is rather obvious.

1. Don’t put so much glucose in.

2. Burn off the stored glucose.

Glucose is a measurable marker of a very complex body disorder involving the endocrine system has been called Diabetes. Glucose has been the easiest to observe and measure. One early observation was sweet smell of a urine sample. Treatments could be monitored by recording changes in how quickly it attracted ants. Blood levels indicate the amount of glucose in transport to be used by body cells for energy, being sent to storage or eliminated from the body.

Dietary sugars are one of the primary sources glucose. Diet can be used an effective method to adjust body storage and impact free glucose in the body fluids in many individuals. High levels of glucose are harmful to the body and when kept down can reduce longterm complications, which includes negatively impacting the body's ability to maintain healthy glucose levels, both too low and too high.

Insulin and many other medications taken by Diabetics force the body to lower glucose levels being transported in body fluids. This creates the potential for acute, life-threatening situations of low blood sugar episodes. The primary method to prevent these life threatening events has been to coordinate the consumption of carbohydrates and medication induced glucose lowering. Abrupt changes to this balance can create acute danger to a person.

No diabetic should make a major change to their diet without knowledge of their individual medication's method and timing of effecting blood sugar. Have a rescue plan for severe hypoglycemic events. Others in the household should be trained on plan incase of loss of ability to think clearly or unconsciousness.

Have a plan to make adjustments of regular medication doses of diabetic medications if dietary or exercise changes result in chronically lower glucose levels. Guidance from your provider on monitoring for glucose level changes, the tigger events on when to make a dosage adjustment and when to notify them of changes.

Diabetes is a highly variable condition, with many experts offering one-size-fits-all solutions. The journey of living with the condition is unique for every individual who has the challenge.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

@Lookout Pretty much known that when at least in British Colonial Empire adopted the UK diet, diseases which were never known among indigenous groups appeared like heart disease and diabetes. However, I have my doubts that leaving the typical Western diet can reverse a problem like diabetes. I sorta have doubts that a good diet is going to reverse the ability of the pancreas to produce insulin.

In my case, low carb diet, no fried foods, veggies, etc helped managed my blood sugar levels to a pre-diabetic level. But then when I ate some "good" foods, my blood sugar levels spiked to over 200. For example, bananas are out but keep around to increase levels if they get too low.

But then medical establishment does not help. When I got diagnosed with Type 2, attended a number of classes by my HMO at the time on managing it. On diet, people wanted help on choosing the best items from the McDonald's menu and what were the best ice creams to eat. And the presenters obliged. But then again, a fellow worker who has Type 2 said his doctor told him if you must eat McDonalds, then forego the fries.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

who knows what it is made of/from.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Now that she is on about 10 prescriptions of daily meds, she seems confident in their efficacy to the point she eats desserts, drinks Cokes, eats carbs, and sits around the house all day, thinking of which dessert she can bake.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

set our life path.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout She taught aerobics classes. Now, she can't tie her shoe laces, so she wears slippers. I can't believe the change in her.
Anyway, we try to maintain a good diet at home. We are at perfect UBI.
It is cold, raining, and will be cold throughout November. Snuggling weather, so no complaints at all!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

Sad cases if one challenged the one I knew about some dietary choice when out at a restaurant the reply would be "it's ok, that's why I take x, y and z".

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hey EL, Hope all are well.

Capitalism = Moneyism. If it were called what it really is, it would not have gained the traction it did. It is a death cult, the obvious only possible result of its worship being death of the religion in the end, and of countless little people, as well as the environment on the way, for lack of money.

Steller was amazing. That is a fine Jay, the most impressive of eagles in his Sea Eagle, and a monster Sea Lion. He also had a Sea Cow. The extinct Steller's Sea Cow I think was the largest of the Dugongs (as Manatee) and only cold-water species. Maybe last ones in 1800's? Big and slow.

Monet did a mean lily. Wink

Just got our first few Robin in, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Friday, and a guy in town photo'd a Woodcock in his biz yard on Main St. yesterday.

be well all!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

enhydra lutris's picture

@dystopian
if you really think about it.

Still haven't seen Steller's sea eagles but tons of his jays. In fact, there are a lot of nearby areas where stellers habitat overlaps scrubbie habitat, so you either move back and forth between them or hit areas where you'll find both jays.

I've heard robins, solitary or mayble a couple or so for a bit now, but this morning there was a large mixed flock of some Robins and loads of Cedar Waxwings (FOS) just a few backyards away, up an ascending slope so all visible from our place. Up at the top there are a couple of sentinel redwoods (sempervirens) that they roost in and probably feed from, and half way up is a large tree/bush covered with red berries. It could be pyrocantha, they get huge around here, or Toyon, os something else, that they descend on to feast.

Be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

soryang's picture

I wouldn't have known it was World diabetes day. I guess it made me reflect on my father's experience with type 1. I know it was a hardship for him. His diet and eating schedule had to be strictly maintained or he could go into shock.

He was a chemical engineer who worked for a big pharma company. He always used to use the expression "ethical drugs," and "ethical drug manufacturers." I don't think anyone pretends US drug companies are necessarily "ethical" anymore. He introduced me to concept of drug labeling when I was old enough to understand it. Later by chance, I wrote a thesis on medical products liability litigation which was an eye opener. Became familiar with FDA regs and procedures at the time. I got stuck with the topic because it was the only one left to choose from because I had delayed selecting my topic. It was the least favorite topic among the law students. My thesis was well received, and helped me later when some friends wanted me to assist in office managing some medical products liability cases. That only lasted a couple of years or so.

My father lived to be ninety. He managed his diabetes well, although I did see him go into insulin shock a few times. This usually happened when he was outside of his normal routine for eating due to circumstances not under his control. I'm sure his expertise in chemistry was a factor in his ability to manage his disease. I think I indirectly benefitted from the family diet regimen when I was young, and still eat sensibly (thanks mostly to my wife) although I don't expect to live that long. I'm glad that none of my other family members (including me) seem to have inherited the disease thus far.

I remember meeting other type I diabetes persons over the years who didn't fair quite as well as my father. I was always moved by their condition. @enhydra lutris Thanks for bringing up this important subject. I had buried memories of these experiences for some time.

The cost of insulin is an outrage.

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語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang if many of the early type 1 diagnoses might have been insulin resistant type 2s. Ie, the pancreas produces insulin but it just gets flushed thru the system.

Your description of his experiences parallels mine quite a bit, a couple of decades earlier.

Thanks, he did well.

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soryang's picture

@exindy I have to admit that my experience is mostly an emotional and anecdotal one. I read your account of your experience with great interest. In a very limited sense, my father's affliction was our affliction, because I know what he went through and how he endured.

I tried to put my concerns about diabetes to one side, other than to worry about my grandchildren; I just always assumed it was type 1.

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語必忠信 行必正直

Read a very good series on diabetes in NYC from NYTimes awhile back. One hospital created a sort of diabetes health clinic. The purpose was to have diabetics suffering from complications like kidney problems to stay with the hospital. In this way, they could make their money treating the complications.

One bizarre thing which maybe I misread was that in NYC there were not enough endocrinologists to treat diabetes. Not sure why an endocrinologist was needed when a GP could easily handle standard treatments.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@MrWebster @exindy @soryang @MrWebster @Lookout

responsive to all of you. My mother was a healthy, slim woman who ate a conservative, healthy, nutrition oriented diet her entire life. She had a pregnancy a bit late in life and afterwards was diabetic, in fact, she was a "brittle diabetic", hair trigger, fully insulin dependent. Her daughter, my much, much, much younger sister had early onset crohn's disease and had a very restricted and limited diet. Somewhere in her forties she caught some mystery virus, like an influenza, that hospitalized her for a while, and when she was released, she too was diabetic out of the blue sky, like her mom.

Back when type 1 was "childhood diabetes" they both would've been "type 2" even though diet wasn't a factor and they were totally insulin dependent becausse they weren't producing any insulin on their own. The old type 1 or type 2 distinction is going in the toilet, there are a huge number of different types, which is one reason not to leave it up to ye average GP as MWebster had suggested could be possible. what we don't know about this condition and how it and the various treatments interacts with all of the body's other processes and organs is vast, far greater than what we do know. My little sis has a small team that includes an endocrinologist, FWIW, who, as specialists can keep up with all of the latest.

Here's a kicker - my mom had an unknown gut disorder as a wee child that sounds in retrospect like something on the Inflammatory Bowel Disease spectrum, and they didn't think she'd live, or so I've been told. I'm not a diabetic but I've got long-term chronic UCS. I had a flare last year that lasted from early fall into spring of this year. While they got me through it they studied all the options and gave me a ton of tests, including mailing some of my blood off to a mystery lab in SoCal, San Diego iirc. I get copies of all my test results. So, weeks after all the results from one battery of tests I get the information from said outside lab - something like "Subject has two copies of the genespeak allele which means that they cannot process chemicals of the following 4 families and accordingly cannot have medications based on chemspeak 1 through 3". Two of those medications are being used and promoted for treating a variety of conditions including IBD. So it occurred to me that without their massive due diligence I could've easily been given one of those drugs on the traditional "well, let's try this one" basis. Then it occurred to me that some 20 years ago when my sister caught that virus they almost certainly weren't doing that kind of testing and she might have the same genetic problem and might've been given some chemical from one of those families and it trashed her pancreas. Pure speculation but nobody has, of yet, come up with any guesses.

So this is intended to be illustrative of how crazy wild the depth of the problem is and can be; humans and all quasi-unique and we still don't really have the science to deal with it. My provided has a subgroup of gastroenterologists that specializes in IBD and who work with a team of dedicated pharmacologists who work only with them. That's where we should be with a whole boatload of chronic conditions, and we're not even close.

As an, aside both my sis and I are empiricists, so we observe and monitor shit ()pun not intended, but ...), especially where there are conflicting experts or simply vague ones. We react differently to say wheat bread, rye bread, potatoes and corn, no big surprise, but also to sweet corn versus corn tortillas to tamales to polenta. Carbs ain't carbs, the term is a vast oversimplification, and a flood of experts, dieticians, diet authors and talk shows generally has a lot of the populace going off half cocked on a lot of dietary regimes and that includes a lot of our type 2 thru type 450 or whatever, which is how it is that people can be on "book healthy" diets and not get better. So, if a given regime can cure 50% of type two, that is fantastic and eyond wonderful, but what about the others. What if they really aren't classic type 2s at all, or what if they've got mystery genetic issues. We sort of need to look into that given the size of the population.

be well and have a good one

edit - assorted clean-up and fixes

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Sima's picture

@enhydra lutris
thank you for the great and informative comment. My, slim healthy, rode bikes, hiked hundreds of miles every year, always ate good food father has diabetes (and late stage dementia now). It's not as simple as diet. It's just not. Me, I'm overweight, so is my mother... not a hint of diabetes. It's just not simple!

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

My brother’s neighbor, a former rural rodeo queen and barrel racer, had a horrific fall off of a horse that left her blind and destroyed her pancreas and kidneys as a teenager. For a couple of years, she had to take insulin daily and regular dialysis.

Her doctor put her on the list for a kidney transplant, and after a couple of years she was notified that a kidney was available. She was also notified that the same donor had a compatible pancreas. She received both the kidney and the pancreas, and for the next 20+ years she was neither a diabetic nor needed dialysis.

After 20+ years, her new kidney and her pancreas began to fail. She ended up getting another kidney, but no new pancreas. She is now a diabetic again and must take insulin every day.

Both my aunt and my best friend from college were Type-1 diabetics, which they contracted in connection with childhood diseases when they were four or five years old. I asked them whether anyone had ever discussed with them the possibility of a pancreas transplant and told them about my brother’s neighbor. Despite being lifelong diabetics, they had never even heard that such a transplant was possible. My subsequent research suggested that a pancreas transplant is not difficult and relatively safe.

It made me wonder how many perfectly good pancreas(es) are simply thrown away. It sure seems to me that 20+ years of not having to inject insulin and all of the related medical care and complications could cost even more than a pancreas transplant. In any event, it was a shock to me that my college buddy, who came from a very wealthy family, had never even heard of the possibility of a pancreas transplant. I spread the word whenever I can.

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@Bring Back Civics

thanks for sharing!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Bring Back Civics

be spread especially to the medicos.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

(loss of legs) to Metformin miracle cure not approved for the condition.
My husband had a blood test showing he was sort of nearing pre-diabetic. So, we watched a video presentation by a dr. saying high fat content meat was the magic solution. The next video that came up was a video saying the worst thing a pre-diabetic could possibly eat was high fat content meat. And so on.
To all who have problems, and memories or realities of family with problems, my heart goes out to you. I tend to think everyone is unique, and treatment should not be dictated by an insurance chart, and thinking in broad categories where overlap to specific conditions is just wrong. And this is not just diabetes. It is copd, and high cholesterol, it is heart palpitations, it is fatty liver.
Last year, it took the fifth doctor to figure out what I had, and the 6th dr. to actually treat it properly.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

We're too quick to generalize in the medical/biological realm, using a simplistic understanding of the way physics and chem are supposed to work as our reference models, but biology doesn't work that way and, what they are finally beginning to learn under the heading of "epigenetics" is proof and partial explanation. The totally discredited Lamarck (sp?) wasn't 100% wrong it seems and starting with the boomers, we've all been guinea pigs in a vast horde of unintended unplanned uncontrolled experiments that we've never understood to be such. The effects, especially the combined cumulative effects are unknown, unexplored and unanalyzed, but they shit for sure aren't uniform across the population.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --