Posted by Rick on October 25, 1999, at 1:04:35
In reply to Re: Thanks Rick..., posted by Racer on October 24, 1999, at 22:01:46
Neither dawn phenomenon nor variable fasting readings necessarily make you diabetic at all, let alone "full blown". Dawn phenomenon (overnight rise in blood sugar) is common among many people whose glucose gets nowhere near diabetic levels. And variation alone doesn't make you diabetic either. Some people fail the Hemoglobin A1C blood test (the one that estimates your blood sugar control over the last 2-3 months), yet are not considered diabetic because they pass the fasting glucose tests (which constitute the current "official" method for diagnosing diabetes).
Over the last eight months, I have terrorized almost a dozen (former) friends and family members by making them take finger stick tests. These were all people whose routine fasting glucose lab tests showed no indication of diabetes. Yet many came up with fasting readings near or over 126, and some had after-meal readings of well over 200 (supposedly suggestive of diabetes). And my meter IS accurate.
While tight blood sugar control is ideal, it's clear to me that even non-diabetics have wide swings for various reasons (including medications, stress, and more), and that a lot of people are labeled "diabetic" because of the arbitrary rules and unlucky timing of their lab tests. Funny how, when the official diabetes cutoff was lowered from 140 mg/dl to 126, millions of people on earth went to bed non-diabetic and woke up with an incurable disease. I guess God was in a bad mood that night.
I apologize for my cynicism, but it honks me off to see statistical ESTIMATES, based on a continuom derived from averages, falsely presented to people as ABSOLUTE cutoff points. If you stay at 125, you DON'T have an incurable disease; if you veer one point higher, you have developed an incurable disease for life. Hogwash!! This may indeed scare some people into taking care of themselves, but in many cases it probably actually *worsens* their progress by creating undue anxiety or even depression.
OK, I'm off my soapbox now.
Rick
-----> Hm...
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> Of course, we've been reading about implanted cells for a decade, at least, but this one sounds more promising than the other studies I've read of...
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> Since my fasting levels change easily, and since I do experience dawn phenomenon, I guess that makes me full blown, though I usually describe myself as 'borderline', just because it has been so very well controlled for so long now. Well, that's really semantics, ain't it? Day to day, I just have to work to get it back under control, and to keep it there.
>
> Getting some more Effexor would be a good thing, since it sounds as though that has been part of keeping me stable lately. Hm...
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> Thanks again for all the input.
poster:Rick
thread:13663
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991016/msgs/13824.html