Insulin Resistance and Intensive Training

A lot of things seem to have happened. There has been a shift, like continents moving: you don't notice it happening but somehow you've moved two inches closer to Hawaii. My BMI has shrunk to a tiny 29 on good days, which is kind of nice, as it moves me out of the 'obese' category into the merely 'overweight' category. On the down side my blood sugar measure has shown that the diabetes is getting worse and they want to put me on metformin.

I was given a book called Reversing Diabetes. It is quite interesting as its approach is holistic, rather than drug based. It is all about how diet, vitamins and exercise can do wonders for the diabetic and reduce their dependence on prescription medicines. Indeed the writer is so anti-medication that he has scared me half to death with the nasty side-effects I could get. Metformin apparently kills about 10,000 diabetics a year or something by giving them heart attacks.

It's written by an American doctor who specifically treats patients to his own theories. There are a few too many sentences that start off with "Here at the Whittaker Wellness Clinic, all the patients..." blah blah, but at least he backs up his claims with research. What I don't know is if he is selective about the research he chooses.

Did you see Horizon a couple of weeks ago?

Click link.

Some scientists somewhere have discovered that if you do a little really intensive training every week, it breaks down the glycogen stores in your muscles, improves your VOmax (if you have the right genes) and reduces you insulin insensitivity by as much as 25% in just a few weeks.

Naturally I was thrilled to hear about this - a few minutes exercise a couple of times a week? Cool! Where do I sign up?

Then I got the phone call from the diabetic clinic to say I was getting worse and I realised that nothing is going to save me from this nasty progressive disease. Intensive exercise? Let's think... Yesterday I walked 6 hours over rugged terrain on some Welsh mountains; the day before I swam 60 lengths; two days before that I spent two hours climbing; three days before that I climbed to the highest peak in the county; the day before that I cycled 19 miles... and so it goes on.

I have ALREADY benefitted from the exercise. I assume I would be way worse if I hadn't had this constant stream of activity, but it is impossible to judge it.

The Horizon episode also showed that exercise doesn't help you lose weight... something I've been whinging on about for years. Finally I'm vindicated!

Anyway, if you didn't see the episode, it is worth a look.

Ah, That's Better.

So, after tackling the vagaries of the new i-phone, I resorted to posting from the computer, like usual. It's not that I don't like my new phone, it's just that I have to get my teenagers to show me how to do things on it - like take photos or get rid of the random shortcut icons I seem to have littered all over the screen. Wouldn't mind if they actually worked.

I digress. I tried to post yesterday from my mobile and for some unknown reason it would only allow me to type in the Title box and not in the main text box. This was not helpful. The screen just flashed orange when I tapped it and made a soft blooping noise. Even when I tapped the screen quite fast, it still wouldn't do it, so I'm afraid you've had to wait for my update.

I do realise some of you are waiting with baited breath, and I can only apologise for keeping you on tenterhooks. I suppose I left you all with the impression that I had finally cracked it and I was about to shed kilos all over the floor. Unfortunately, this has not happened.

I did put a couple of pounds back on, but they seem to have vanished again, so I can honestly say I am holding steady. Steady as she blows at around 13st. I have been trying to keep off the sugar, but not doing too well at that. I seem to crave it. I've been substituting a lot of sugar cravings for crisps, which is not ideal, and probably led to the couple of pounds increase.

As I understand it, the type of diabetes I'm developing is insulin resistance. This means that although I have tons of insulin sloshing around my body, the cells can't recognise it anymore. I don't think I really understood that before. My pancreas compensates by producing more and more insulin and eventually burns out like a dying star, although possibly less spectacularly than the average supernova.

Apparently cells can take up glucose without insulin if you do exercise, so keeping fit is recommended. At least that part is easy. I'm not sure about how cellular glucose uptake is even possible without a carrier protein, so I need to do a bit more research before I totally believe the rhetoric. People write the most ludicrous rubbish if they want you to believe something. I remember one sports instructor telling me that fat was bad for you because it was only one atom away from plastic. By that logic water is lethal as it is only one atom different from hydrogen peroxide (that's hair dye bleach, BTW).

The book I'm reading "Reversing Diabetes" suggests a 30 minute walk a day, plus a bit of a stroll after meals. I really hope this isn't another one of those 'party line' do-take-the-stairs-instead-of-the-lift rubbish messages.

My dog would be very sad if I only took him on a 30 minute walk each morning. We did four miles today, although I have to say I feel absolutely wiped out now because I've had a god-awful cold all week, which hasn't quite gone yet. I could drink for England, I'm so dry - and I just mean water! In this case endless thirst is flu related, rather than diabetes related. I do get more thirsty than I used to, of course, but it isn't a major problem. I'm interested to see what effect the special pills for my trip abroad are going to have on me. One of the fun side effects include polyuria - i.e. they are diuretics. Hmm. Excess thirst, and lots of trips to dodgy third world toilets. I can hardly wait.

The book also says that diabetics get ravenously hungry as they try to feed starving cells, that are sloshing around in an ocean of plenty, unable to access the sugar. This explains the cravings at any rate. (No, I'm not pregnant. It's a different sort of craving. ) So far, nobody has been able to explain the symptom of screaming at people when I'm hungry. Several professionals have told me to control myself (if it was that easy, I would) and the diabetic nurse told me it was nothing to do with them (helpful... just deny everything), so I am no further along in my quest to be able to slim. As I've said before, if I could do it using exercise and not turn into a raving, axe-wielding manic every time I'm hungry, then I would be as thin as a racing snake by now.

I suppose I should just be grateful that a few pounds have been shed in the past year or so. It is progress, of sorts.

Bugger why cant i type in the main box?

Not Quite So Fat This Year

So I hops on the scales, I does, even after the Xmas blow out and I am a whopping 6lb lighter than I was exactly a year ago. Yeah! Go Jemima! OK, so all you professional slimmers with, like, willpower and all that, probably lost 6lb in the first fortnight, but frankly... I don't care. I lost it eventually, so I'm proud of it.

I also went for a 5km run for the first time since about May. I did it in 42 minutes, which means I haven't lost much of the fitness I'd built up. I did have to peel my dripping, sweat-rank clothes off me afterwards, but hey, that's the price you pay.

To quote the writer Thomas Carlyle

"I have a great ambition to die of exhaustion, rather than boredom."

Oh yes.

British Women the Fattest in Europe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15901351

The UK has more obese women than any other country in Europe, according to European Union figures.

Data agency Eurostat, which looked at 19 countries, found nearly a quarter of UK women - 23.9% - were recorded as being obese in the year 2008 to 2009.

Just over 22% of UK men were classed as obese, coming second only to Malta.

A person is defined as obese if their body mass index (BMI), the result of a calculation involving weight and height, is above a certain level.

The BMI correlates fairly well with body fat.

Statisticians found the share of overweight and obese people increases with age in all of the 19 member states that data was available for.

The data come from the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) and was published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

After the UK, the countries with the highest levels of female obesity were Malta, with 21.1%, and Latvia, where 20.9% fulfilled that criteria.

Meanwhile, after Malta and the UK, the countries with the highest instances of male obesity were Hungary - where 21.4% fall into that category - and the Czech Republic, where 18.4% are classed as such.

The UK's high levels of obesity are in stark contrast to those in countries such as Romania, where just 8% of women were classed as obese along with 7.6% of men.

Obesity levels were also found to be low in Italy, Bulgaria and France.

In Italy, 9.3% of women were found to be obese and 11.3% men.

Meanwhile, in Bulgaria levels of obesity for women and men were found to be 11.3% and 11.6%, with levels of France identified as being 12.7% and 11.7% respectively.

The figures suggested that the proportion of women who are obese or overweight falls as the educational level rises.

Last month, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley launched a bid to reduce obesity levels in England by 2020.

The minister said people need to be honest with themselves about how much they eat and drink.

He said that, overall, Britons should be eating five billion fewer calories a day than at present.

I just love that last line from Andrew Lansley. Five billion fewer calories? No wonder I'm obese!

A Miracle has Occurred

I got on the scales and I was 1lb below 13st! I don't know how it has happened (maybe all the cycling?) but WOW! A miracle has been bestowed upon me!

A Walk in the Park

I bumped into Max last week, which reminded me I haven't posted for a while. I have to say I miss him. His sense of humour always brightens the day. I was attending a series of 'training clinics' aimed at the newly diabetic. 

What can I say about them? A lot of it was truly numpty. I know all about how diabetes works. In fact, more than the nurse did, as she confidently told everyone that glucose was absorbed from the stomach. Er, no, the only things absorbed from the stomach are pretty much aspirin and alcohol. Anyway, I kept stumm, as I could see the others in the room really did need it dumbed down that much. One chap quit, saying he didn't want to learn how to be a doctor. Sigh. Trust me, there's no danger of that here.


Then it got more interesting, as they started to tell me things I didn't know - about insulin types and different GIs, which is unfortunately, nothing to do with muscled Americans in khaki uniforms. GI stands for Glycemic Index, a measure of how fast the sugar from foods gets into your blood stream. I had no idea that French bread (high GI) was a death trap compared to ice-cream (low GI). I went straight home and ate three bowls of mint choc-chip.


Finally, we got to watch a video about a bloater called George, who fails to starve himself into being slim. Then he takes up basket ball and suddenly all the fat goes away. Give me strength. OK, maybe I shouldn't speak so harshly of George. I just wish the condescending signs telling me to 'walk instead of taking the lift' were not based on fantasy. 


I saw an ad on the back of a bus recently. It said 
"Lose your spare tyre? It's a walk in the park!" 
No it [insert swear word of choice] isn't! Really, health advice should have some sort of basis in reality. Politicians lie. The medical profession shouldn't. If I could lose my spare tyre by walking in the park, I should have the figure of Naomi Campbell by now. Instead, all I have is her temper when I try to cut down on food. Maybe if she ate a bit more, she'd be less aggressive too.


So I went to see yet another dietitian, who went through the 'so you think you're different' spiel. No, I think I know myself by now, and all the problems I have do occur in other people too. I just seem to have difficulty overcoming them. She suggested eating less and doing more aerobic stuff. Surprise!


My main problems are a) I forget to count what I'm eating. I never weigh things. I'm busy. This is not an excuse. It is a fact.
b) If I don't eat enough, I scream at people. This is not fair on my family and deleterious to my career. Again, this is not an excuse. It is a fact.
c) I eat on the run most of the time. It is spooned into me in between fetching the kids from after-school clubs and going for a swim. It isn't something I spend a lot of time deliberating about. It isn't enough of a priority for me, despite being something I worry about constantly. This needs to change before anything will work. 


If you took me away from my current life, tucked me up in a health spa and took away all the stress that triggers the screaming-during-hunger outbursts, then I am sure I would lose weight just like anyone else.