OddballGreg - Diabetes And Other Sugar Illnesses

Mmmmm. Spoonfuls of sugar. Sounds great doesn't it? (Teehee)

Diabetes is an illness which millions in world suffer with every day. It influences ever part of a person's life, from how they can live, to what they can eat, and has some pretty cruel side-affects besides. Following some interesting sugar issues I suffered from recently, I figured it might be interesting to talk about that.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that I was finding it increasingly difficult to function normally in my days. I could barely get up in the morning, and focused thought was about as difficult to manage as eating an entire pork roast on your own in 5 minutes. Combine that with a general feeling of being unwell, and various other little symptoms, and you had one rather unhappy, dysfunctional OddballGreg. So what was the issue?

Simply, as far as I can tell: Sugar. Though I was unsure of what the precise issue was, my research for this topic today has led me to believe that I may have been suffering from acute Hyperglycemia. (That is to say, there was too much sugar in my blood.) While hypochondria and self-diagnosis are both things to be wary of, and I suggest having actual professionals doing the diagnosing. In this case, I'm merely pointing out the most likely issue based one what I changed to make improve how I was feeling.

Quite simply, I was drinking up to 2 liters of carbonated cooldrink, along with several tablespoons of sugar in cups of hot chocolate and my breakfast a day. (Not per cup and bowl obviously, that's the rough total). And that's not counting any other sugar I happen to eat in the form of sweets, alcohol, deserts and other goodies. Suffice to say, if I didn't have the absurdly fast metabolism I do currently possess, it's likely that my total weight would be a fair bit more than 65 kilograms.

After I realized that I could barely concentrate, I dropped almost every bit of I was having on the daily basis. I still had a few spoons with my breakfast and the occasional glass of cooldrink, (or soda as it is known overseas), and began drinking water instead. The result, I could actually get up in the morning and focus on writing blog posts without wondering why my brain felt like it had the metaphorical haze of a Californian fog.

Of course, having been a blogger for almost half a year, and having written over 100 posts for the TCSA blog as of last week, naturally this personal experience immediately led to me thinking in terms of a blog post. "How can I talk about this, and extend it to an interesting and important issue in the world?"

The answer was fairly simple since Hyperglycemia is typically considered a gateway issue for Type 2 Diabetes as the absurdly high glucose (sugar) levels in the blood lead to a perpetual increase in insulin levels, which eventually cascades into insulin resistance and ultimately results in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, (or just simply, Diabetes). Suffice to say, realizing that my effectual poisoning of my body from my poor dietary choice led to quite the wakeup call when I read how what I was suffering from was on the slippery slope to a what is a very restrictive, and frequently fatal medical condition in the world. (That, and the treatment of it frequently requires needles for insulin injection. *cringes* just the thought of that as someone with vasovagal needle phobia is enough to make me want to eat healthy foods.)

Of course, bearing in mind the average audience for the TCSA blog is between the ages of 20 and 30, I'm not going to bore you with an distinctly long look into Diabetes and it's causes and symptoms, though I will point out, interestingly, that Diabetes is not the only sugar related illness out there, with Hyperglycemia, Hypoglycemia, Metabolic Syndrome, Insulin Resistance being some of the other sugar related conditions out there.

Suffice to say, if you're interested in the details, each of those conditions is linked to their associated page on Wikipedia, though in general, I advise you see a doctor rather than self-diagnose and trying to self medicate, which can be a very dangerous habit.

In any case, hopefully that's made you consider your lifestyle a little, or at least helped you to understand what may be causing some of the strange problems you may or may not be suffering from. Of course, if you have any questions on anything I just spoke about, do feel free to ask them down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter where I will happily answer them. Apart from that, do be sure to share this article with anyone you know who has been worrying about the way they've been feeling. They might just find some useful information. And of course, if you would like to read more interesting articles such as this one, do be sure like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or following us on Twitter to get all the latest posts, as they're published. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Careful eating my friends.