Tag Archive for: lifestyle

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“How Do I Prevent High Blood Sugars Working From Home?”

Today’s question is from Taylor, and she asks: “how to prevent high blood sugars while working from home? And not only by increasing insulin?”

Tricky, tricky indeed! And welcome back to another episode of Type 1 Thursday!

Essentially, what’s at the root of this question is how to improve your insulin sensitivity. And luckily, there are many lifestyle choices you can make to improve exactly that (even without necessarily just upping your insulin). And a lot of it comes down to prioritizing yourself.

As a note insulin requirements, however, is that you need the insulin that you need. Period. Whatever the situation, changes in routine, stress etc that makes your blood sugars run higher than normal, your body needs more insulin. I know way too well how hard this can be to accept, I’ve been there. Many times! But in order for your body to run optimally, it needs varying amounts of insulin at varying times. Try to meet this need with compassion and curiosity (and the necessary insulin, of course)!

Limiting high blood sugars when working form home – Type 1 Thursday – Hanna Boëthius

👉🏼 What are your best tips to increase insulin sensitivity? Let’s chat! 👈🏼

Lifestyle choices that help insulin sensitivity include, but are not limited to, the following:

🌟 Stress management (try meditation, yoga, EFT, essential oils, bath…)
🌟 Movement (focus on body weight moves!)
🌟 Hydration (lots of clean water can help insulin sensitivity)
🌟 Sleep (both quality and quantity!)
🌟 Healthy and blood sugar friendly nutrition (low carb)
🌟 Any supplements? (Magnesium, Omega 3 & Vitamin D is a rule of thumb)
🌟 Find a routine that fits YOU

Disclaimer

The only purpose of this website is to educate and to inform. It is no substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This website is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. Instead, we encourage you to discuss your options with a health care provider who specializes in treating Type 1 Diabetes.

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Type 1 Thursday – Why Movement?

Why should you focus on movement as a person with diabetes? Isn’t exercise just boring, but has to be done and potentially raises your blood glucose?

Not necessarily! It’s time for Type 1 Thursday, my Sweet Friend, where I explain why moving our bodies is a GREAT THING, what we need to focus on and how to do it.

Why Movement? – Type 1 Thursday with Hanna Boëthius

How do you move your body?

Transcription

If you prefer to read about why movement is so good for us people with diabetes, here’s a text version:

Movement – I’m talking about another lifestyle factor that you can do to perhaps help your diabetes management along. I call it movement, because exercise sounds like a lot of work, quite honestly. And I don’t like it to be seen as a burden for myself mainly, but perhaps also for someone else out there. So that’s why I call it movement. It should be fun!

Why should we pay extra attention to movement as people with Type 1 or Type 2, (or actually any kind of diabetes at all)? This is one of these power tools that we can use to get better diabetes management and results. Number one is that it helps our blood sugar management, even if we do perhaps spike during the the movement that we have chosen. The general rule of thumb is that heavy lifting and and anaerobic movement will raise your blood sugar, whereas cardio and aerobic movement will lower your blood sugar. This is, of course, as usual, individual, it’s just a rule of thumb. But it is just something that you can bear in mind when you are trying to get moving. With the fact that it helps blood sugar management, it also can help you lower your HbA1c. This is something that I have recently managed to do, again. That can be a good motivator for moving your body.

Movement raises your well being , to use your body the way it’s intended to, are not meant to sit (like I’m doing right now) we are meant to be moving around and enjoying using our bodies. The risk of cardiovascular disease is lowered with exercise. Also a potential weight loss tool if that is needed and wanted. Then it can be a huge benefit to move your body! Also more biochemically, the engines in your cells, called mitochondria, they actually increase in the cells with movement. The cells have bigger engines, essentially, when we move our bodies. This is a really good thing, as it keeps the mitochondria young, which is part of staying young in mind, body and soul. Movement can also lower your triglycerides, if that is a problem for you, and it can also lower your blood pressure. Movement raises our immune function, which is really great in times, like now, when the fall “nasties” are here. It also, first and foremost, raises our insulin sensitivity (I will get into why that is in a little bit). First, movement increases our muscle strength, and also our bone density, which is really great to prepare our bodies for maybe higher age. And yeah, those are some of the main benefits of moving your body. There are of course many more, you get out in nature, perhaps you feel and a sense of accomplishment, along with many mental factors that are really good when it comes to moving your body.

Why is movement helping our insulin sensitivity? Because the main part of our glucose storage is actually in our muscles. In our liver, too, absolutely, but it’s mainly in our muscles. We can use movement to help with sensitivity and blood sugar management. Insulin is key number one, of course. But movement can help control your blood sugar levels. The glucose in your blood goes into the muscles and is stored there. In a very short explanation, we become more insulin sensitive because the blood sugar isn’t in the blood anymore. It’s stored in the muscles.

Exercise does so much! But how do you do it? Well, it’s easiest to work it into a routine, it’s easiest to do daily movement, to have set times when you do it. What type of movement is best? It’s quite simple – choose something that you think is fun! It shouldn’t be a chore, it shouldn’t be feeling like a burden. It shouldn’t feel like that at all! It should actually feel like fun, like something you are rewarding yourself with, something that you’re giving your body as a treat. So the type of movement can be whatever you want, whether that’s dancing along to your favourite song, yoga, or maybe something on YouTube. I found a really great resistance band workout, for example, my muscles can feel it… Or you can go for a walk in nature, or you can run if you think that’s fun, you can go lifting if you think that’s fun. Play, for example, Primal play with Daryl Edwards is a fantastic way of moving your body without you actually realising that it’s proper exercise (and your muscles will be hurting afterwards). The key is to have fun when you are moving your body!

How to get started, it really is easiest to start small. It don’t take on too much, “I have to go to the gym three or four times a week, starting now”. NO! Start small, start moving more in your everyday life, take the stairs instead or the elevator or escalator, get off the bus stop earlier, park further way at the parking lot – all of these things that that are cliches by this point, BUT they actually do work! It gets your body moving. Slowly start to increase your muscle mass because muscles are our main glucose storage devices. The more glucose that is stored in there, less is in the blood. A really easy way to do this is, and this is something that I’ve been doing myself. Recently, I was inspired by a few people that I follow online, and I started the 100 push ups a day challenge I thought it was ridiculous, I thought I could never do it. I thought I was one of the weakest people on the planet! I started actually doing push ups against my kitchen counter, because I couldn’t do them on the floor. But very quickly, within those first 30 days, I could move on to lower and lower surfaces, until I now am doing all 100 (not in one go, I do them in sets of 15, and then 10 at the end) on the floor on my yoga mat. I’m very happy about it! It feels like an accomplishment. I really like that it also builds muscles, works many big muscle groups in your body. The bigger the muscle groups, the more effect you have. The other one that I added was squats. So I do 100 pushups and 100 squats, which takes me about 15 minutes or so to do this. It’s not a lot of time that you actually give up from whatever else, whether it’s 15 minutes or social media, 15 minutes of TV watching a day… It’s not a lot of time you give up in order to get the benefits of getting a bigger muscle mass.

Before you start anything like this, whether it’s yoga, the 100 pushup challenge, dancing – anything, do check with your doctor if you are okay to start exercising. In some cases, maybe not. So check with them.

Generally, movement can be a great tool for our diabetes management, all of us. I would love to hear from you, how do you move your body? What do you think is fun? Let me know in a comment.

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Type 1 Thursday – Why the Dietary Wars?

In today’s Type 1 Thursday, it’s time for a more personal comment… 

Why do people disagree so strongly about what people with diabetes should eat, when we all should have a common goal (notmal, healthy blood sugars)? 

Type 1 Thursday with Hanna Boëthius – Why the Dietary Wars?

What’s your opinion about this? What tools and tricks have you tried to try to manage your diabetes and what worked for you? I would love to hear in a comment somewhere and I will be happy to chat with you there. Comments and questions are welcome!

Transcription

If you prefer to read, here’s the transcription of the episode above:

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Type 1 Thursday with me Hanna, one of the cofounders of The Low Carb Universe. Also, as I’m sure you’ve heard me say many, many times now, I’ve had Type 1 Diabetes since I was two years old. So for 34 years, I’ve been juggling this wonderful roller coaster that is Type 1 diabetes. And I am happy to share some of my knowledge with you that I figured out and some of the aces up my sleeve that I have gathered in these 34 years! I wasn’t always in control, as I am today. I was very uneven moment, even majority of my diabetes career…

But today, I want to talk about a topic on more of a personal comment. And this is actually something that I’ve gotten comments about before and also during this series, namely the nutrition debate for people with diabetes.

Why is it so inflamed regarding what you should eat as a person with diabetes? How can there be such divided opinions? Everyone who has an opinion seems to be going head to head with each other about this?

I’m actually sad about this, because we all should have that one common goal, which is that all people with diabetes are worthy of normal, healthy, happy healing blood sugars. How the person in question, who is living with diabetes, gets there should be less of a question – as long as they do. If someone comes to me and says, “Hey Hanna, I went vegan and since then my blood sugars are really great!” I’m like, “amazing, great! I’m so happy you found what works for you!” Or if someone says, “you know what, I’m following the Western diet to a tee, and I have amazing blood sugar’s” My response? “Great, fantastic!!

No one could be happier for you than I am in that moment, when you tell me that you have fantastic blood sugars regardless of how or what you’re eating, I, and I know very many people with me, who do advocate for a lower carb, real food, sugar free way of eating don’t want to be militant about it. It’s not that I want to convert every single person with diabetes, that’s not my point. It will never be my point.

But the point is to educate, to inform, and to make people with diabetes aware that they do have a choice.

There is a choice when you’ve tried everything else. When you’ve tried every single diet, every single insulin, every single supplement, way of eating, timing of insulin, there are still options. There’s always, always, always something that you can do in order to improve your health.

It’s not about being militant, it’s not about standing my ground and holding it tight. No,. My goal is for every person with diabetes, to know that there are different ways of managing blood sugar and diabetes, and it but it doesn’t have to be according to the standard Western diet, it doesn’t have to be a vegan approach. It doesn’t have to be low carb, it can be something completely different, as long as it works for YOU. The main point to find what works for you, you can’t look at anyone else. You can draw inspiration from other people who are doing something that is working for them, and then take the good parts. And leave what doesn’t work for you, it’s all about information.

I have had a struggling past with diabetes, it’s been very, very difficult for me to control my diabetes with the standard Western diet that I was told to eat for 26 years. Which, requires, well, recommends, 35 to 60 grams of carbs per meal, five times a day. For me that became unreasonable. It didn’t work. I couldn’t maintain good, healthy, normal blood sugars, without mountain tops and valley bottoms, in terms of blood sugars, which of course doesn’t make you feel great at all. It makes you feel terrible.

My whole point about advocating for low carb for diabetes, and I know very many with me, it is that as long as you get stable, healthy, happy blood sugars, we are all game for it. It wasn’t until I actually did start cutting down my carbs, coincidentally, perhaps, that I started to get better control of my diabetes. So I went from a double digit HbA1c, to a level of 5.1% last time. This is well within the healthy range!

I swear that I could not have done that without the help of dietary change, a change in my lifestyle, and a change in the way that I was eating. For me, I know that it’s not sustainable to do that on a standard Western diet with up to 240 grams of carbohydrate a day, I can’t chase that with insulin. We come back to the law, small numbers, this works a lot better for many, many diabetics.

I really wish I would have had the choice myself earlier to know about that there is a low carb way of eating so that I could have made the decision and try it out earlier, seeing the benefits. I would have saved myself a lot of pain, a lot of suffering a lot of worry, a lot of anxiety because that always comes hand in hand with wobbly blood sugars

This is this is why it’s become such a passion for me, and for the rest of us talking about low carb for diabetes, that every single person with diabetes knows that there is that option to try out as well. When every other option has been explored and transpired, that’s run out of time. It is so important to me that you know that there is another option. And that there are very many options beyond this, too. The main point is that this isn’t disregarded as an option.

So it’s so sad to me that the nutrition debate, especially within diabetes, but also generally, for the general population, has become so inflamed. And I really wish that we could see that we all have a common goal, all of us trying to educate people with diabetes, whether it is with different ways of eating, with exercise, with all of these lifestyle measures… I just would be so happy if we could just realize that we have a common goal, and that is that people with diabetes have normal, healthy, happy blood sugars.

If you have any questions or comments, or what’s your opinion about this? What tools and tricks have you tried to try to manage your diabetes and what worked for you? I would love to hear in a comment somewhere and I will be happy to chat with you there.

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Type 1 Thursday – Type 1 vs Type 2 Diabetes

It’s Thursday – time for another Type 1 Thursday! 

Today’s topic is Type 1 vs Type 2 Diabetes. What are the differences? What are the similarities (if any)? And what about management and treatment, what are differences and similarities there?

Type 1 Thursday – Type 1 vs Type 2 Diabetes

What are your take aways from this video? Share in a comment!

Transcription

If you prefer to read, here it is:

For today’s topic, I wanted to explain and go through the differences between the two main types of diabetes. So that is, Type 1 Diabetes, as I have, and also Type 2 Diabetes that is the more common version. There are also many other versions of diabetes together with it.

I wanted to draw the outline of the sort of differences between these two, and perhaps if there are any similarities. And what about management? How does that work between the two different types?

So basically, Type 1 Diabetes, as you may or may not know, is an autoimmune disease. That means that my beautiful immune system decided that those insulin producing cells looked a little bit dodgy when I was two years old, and kick them out of commission, which is not great because that means that I am all other type 1’s will have to inject insulin for the rest of our lives no matter what we do, no matter whether we go low carb and no matter if we go carnivore – we will always have to inject some insulin. Perhaps not as much as when on the standard American or Western diet, but still a bit so that we keep our engines running, as insulin is the master hormone. And it’s very much needed. So if you don’t produce any, you have to add some.

It is, as I already said, it’s the pancreas that get or a part of the pancreas that gets kicked out. That means that I produce no insulin, but other Type 1’s may produce some, but it is nearly not enough insulin. This can be hereditary, but Type 1 doesn’t have to be hereditary. I, myself, am an example of that. I have no history of Type 1 Diabetes in my family, I am the lucky chosen one. How great is that?

Type 1’s are about 5% only of all diabetes cases. Considering there are over 420 million diabetics in the world, that means that we are very small minority. And I’m not sad about this, because I don’t wish this on anyone. It does explain that we have to do a little bit more advocacy for our type of diabetes because we are not represented as much as Type 2’s.

The onset of Type 1 Diabetes can be very sudden, and it’s usually discovered within weeks. If it’s if it’s not LADA or other side types of Type 1, you will be very, very sick very suddenly. Symptoms include frequent urination and thirst, incredible unquenchable thirst, falling asleep everywhere, because your blood sugar is skyrocketed high. There are few warnings to look out for, that can also be mistaken for the common flu. Don’t wait in case you have this suspicion, go and check it out, if it happens to a family member, for example.

There’s no cure for Type 1 Diabetes. We do have better management possibilities than we’ve had in the past 34 years that I’ve been living with the condition, but there is to date, no cure, and I’m not positive about one happening anytime soon. I secretly, or not so secret, I do wish for it every single day of my life, even if it is easier to manage with lifestyle choices, it’s not as easy as maybe it would have been without having to act as your own pancreas.

Type 2 Diabetes, what is that? That is basically a severe insulin resistance. So your body is still producing insulin. In fact, it’s actually producing tons and tons and oodles and oodles of insulin. But the problem is that your cells don’t recognize the insulin that you’re producing, making you insulin resistant, making you not be able to take up the sugar from the blood stream, making it hang around in the blood stream. That is why you have higher blood sugar in Type 2 as well. Basically, the body does not recognize its own insulin. And this can be very tricky, but there are a lot of things that you can do to improve insulin resistance even as a Type 1, but definitely as a Type 2.

Type 2 can be lifestyle related, or it can also be hereditary. But the lifestyle part is a majority of the cases.

Diabetes cases that are Type 2 in comparison to Type 1 are basically the remaining 95% (and 5% are Type 1.) This can take years to develop, although the symptoms are just the same as in Type 1, just maybe not as severe from the beginning. You might notice a need for more water over a while or you might notice that you’re more tired than usual. But that can also be attributed to stress and all these kind of things that are lifestyle related, as well. The lucky thing with Type 2 is that many cases actually can be reversed with the help of lifestyle measures, like changing your diet, movement, taking supplements, all these things that you can do with your lifestyle is to alleviate and also perhaps reverse Type 2. Even if your Type 2 has so called been turned into Type 1, which it can’t, Type 2 can only become insulin dependent, but it can never be Type 1, because it’s not an autoimmune attack on your insulin producing cells.

What are the commonalities of these two types of diabetes?

Both of them lead to the same complications. These includes retinopathy, potentially blindness, that leads to nerve damage, potentially neuropathy, and/or amputations. And it also can lead to kidney problems and nephropathy. It can lead to cardiovascular disease, it can lead to stroke… All of these things that aren’t so nice with diabetes can actually be attributed to the high blood sugars or the constant constant fluctuations in blood sugar and not the diabetes itself. If you manage to keep your diabetes at bay and keep your blood sugars at a normal, healthy level, then the risk of complications, DKA and all these things, it’s very much smaller than if you don’t and you go between minimum and maximum at all times.

A second similarity is that you have the same goals of achieving normal, healthy, stable blood sugars. Make those continuous blood glucose monitor things look like lines, not roller coasters, but lines. That goes for any diabetic, independent of type.

Thirdly, the want to reduce insulin. Before before people get angry with me here, let me explain why.

In Type 1, if you keep adding lots and lots of insulin the whole time, the risk is that you’re going to be a double diabetic. That means that you, in addition to your Type 1 Diabetes, develop severe insulin resistance so that you have both types of diabetes. For me personally, and I know very many with me, this is something that we definitely want to avoid. You can’t think of insulin as a free for all thing that can make you eat anything that you want. For those of you who works for, great! For those of us who maybe it doesn’t work for, and we need more insulin than necessary, it’s not maybe the best idea. The risk is there, and I was there myself a couple years ago, I am very sure that I had double diabetes, because I was on so much more insulin than I am on now. But it wasn’t confirmed. So I can’t say with security.

Why you want to reduce insulin as a Type 2? If there isn’t that much insulin to not react to for the cells, then maybe they start listening a little bit. It’s like a small toddler, when you scream at them, and try to reinforce your power and try to make them understand… Do they ever listen? No. If you, on the other hand, just keep calm and really give it instructions with a point and and with direction, there is at least a chance that they might listen. It’s similar with Type 2 and insulin, in my opinion.

How can you reduce the amount of insulin needed or used? How can you get stable normal blood sugars? And how can you, as a Type 1 diabetic, not get double diabetes? Lifestyle measurements. As a Type 1, as I said, you will always have to take some insulin, but it will it can be reduced. The power of nutrition in diabetes is just so immense. You can eat a sugar free, low carb, real food kind of diet (and I hate the word diet but there’s no other way of explaining it). If you eat real food, if you if you eat sugar free and if you low carb, chances are that you will be able to improve your health a lot.

This doesn’t just go for people with diabetes – this goes for everyone. Whether you have diabetes or not, if you’re healthy, if you have no health issues at all, you are always going to be better of health wise, if you eat a sugar free, low carb, nutrient dense, real food diet. That’s just it. That and of course, movement, exercise, make sure that you feel joy in your life, make sure that you take supplements if you need them. Make sure to hydrate, make sure that you have a routine that works for you. Make sure that you alleviate your stress. All of these lifestyle measurements are good for both diabetics and non diabetics.

If you have any takeaways or any ideas or any comments, let me know below and I will be happy to chat with you there.

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