Lifestyle Changes & Diabetes

Diabetes ... the scourge of the 21st century. So much medicine, so many surgeries, all promising "disease management" while implying "cure".

Anne Peters, MD, endocrinologist at the Keck School of Medicine, has it more right than anyone else I have heard from conventional medicine". View the article here.

There is no "cure" if by cure we mean fixing the symptoms while continuing on the same life path without any changes. Remember the definition of insanity - continuing to do the same thing repeatedly, each time expecting the results to be different...

Change is a good thing, on many levels. The act of walking itself involves a continuous loss and stability followed by recovery. Without movement, we cannot move forward, we can only stay frozen in place, like a statue.

I have always eaten lots of vegetables, little animal protein, healthy fats. I have avoided those foods to which I have been reactive. I have tried to exercise - sometimes more successfully than others. But in the end, the exercise has always been last on the list, and the first activity to go. It was easy to give it up, because of a variety of excuses: the dogs, the bugs, the traffic, the hurting feet, the wearing out of shoes, the need to be at the office...

Recent change however strongly suggested to me that I find another way. We were given custody of our toddler grandchildren, ages almost three and almost four at the time. And I realized that if I fell down and was unable to get back up, the children would not survive - too young to know about 911, too small to help me get back on my feet.

So here I am, doing a "walk at home" program almost every day of the week. I have lost much weight, gained much strength, and actually feel significantly better. I still don't get a night's sleep - mothers will all remember how sleeping the night through is a luxury when dealing with small children. But I have gone down three clothing sizes, given away all the big clothes. It no longer hurts me to walk to the mailbox - or the grocery store. I walk a mile every day, sometimes two miles, my feet don't hurt, my waitline is happier, and so is my blood sugar.

All of which is to say that I completely agree with Dr. Peters' posting on Medscape, and I hope that everyone who reads this message will take it to heart and do something to change their lifestyle. It's never to late to get healthier.