Monday, October 26, 2009

Feeding a Diabetic

Argh. I missed my second post yesterday.

Since I'm stuck at work with no photos or recaps, I thought that I would write about a health condition that my husband deals with: diabetes. The type 1 version, that is. Otherwise known as juvenile diabetes, type 1 is not preventable and once you have it, you have it for life. It also means that diet and exercise alone won't control it, you're insulin dependent.

About 7 years ago, Jeff caught the stomach flu. He had been diabetic for a couple years by that time, but nobody had bothered to tell him that when he throws up, his blood sugar soars to unsafe levels. After a really awful night, Jeff got up to smoke and the next thing he knew, it was 2 days later and he was in the hospital. His blood sugar level had been over 900 (I don't remember the exact number) and he had fallen into a diabetic coma. Luckily, he came to after a day but has serious problems with his stomach, nerve endings and feet. He takes Reglan daily for nausea and has to keep his work shoes in shape as all he does at work is walk around on concrete all day.

When we met, his A1C level was around 10. An A1C is a blood test to see how a diabetic is controlling their sugars. 10 is a pretty high number, and I'm proud to say that with my veggie and then vegan diet, we have lowered his A1C to a 7 in a little less than 3 years.

If that isn't a magical side effect to a animal free diet, what is?

1 comment:

mollyjade said...

Another vegan type 1 diabetic here! There are more of us than I expected to find when I first went vegan.