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.

JovialJman - Alcohol (What Does It Do?)

I may or may not be eyeing out that cold glass of whiskey.

From drinking and driving to breaking the seal, we know there are somethings that will happen when we drink but how and why do they happen. Let's talk about that.

There are a lot of people who drink to get a slight buzz, while others never really drink any alcohol. Islam consider the consumption of alcohol sinful, while Jainism forbids it completely. Christianity uses a form of alcohol in their religious practice, (during mass christians take a sip of holy wine which is a representation of the blood of Jesus Christ). Buddhists also tend to try stay away from it as it goes against the fifth of their Five Precepts.

If you have ever gone out with a group of friends in their 50's or younger then you should be familiar with the myth "breaking the seal". The meaning behind that is, when you start drinking alcohol, for this example I shall use beer, you can drink 3 or 4 before needing to go to the restroom to relieve yourself, But as soon as you do, you need to then go to the restroom more and more often, not being able to hold it in. Most of the time this is the case, so the myth was born. Now what would happen if you went earlier on?

Well as it turns out, this is just a myth. But you do go to the restroom more often, how come you may ask, well there is a scientific way to say it, but I shall try my best to put it in a way to explain to your next drunk encounter. There is this hormone called ADH, now this hormone tells your kidney to absorb water and put it into the blood so everything stays hydrated. When eating salt for instance, it absorbs salt, so your body will try and get more water to counteract this, so you will have less pee. Now what alcohol does is it starts inhibiting these hormones from reaching the kidneys effectively, (in other words they are chatting to ADH and getting them to waddle off to the next bar and forgetting about the kidneys.)

This image shows some sciency thing of how alcohol reacts in the body

Now since the Kidneys do not know that they need to absorb water they simply filter it to your bladder, and the more alcohol you drink, the more this will happen. So since you are drinking a lot of liquids and the fact that your body is not absorbing water, you need to pee more and more. But now another consequence of this happening is the dreaded hangover. If you have ever drank too much, you will know how awful you feel the next day, and if you haven't gotten there before, either you haven't been passed out drunk, or you have supermans kidneys.

The reason for this is since you are getting rid of all this water that your body needs, it is starting to dehydrate your body. Now when things do not get what they need, they start acting like a child throwing a tantrum. You begin to feel ill, this is to try get you to stop putting the poison in your body, (yes ... alcohol is a poison), and making you dizzy and lightheaded, this is to save energy. You start becoming thirsty, to try and replenish all this lost water. now if you do not get any of this and choose to sleep it off, in the morning, you feel nauseous and have a headache, these are also symptoms of dehydration.

Some of the things you can do to try and make sure this does not happen is; do not drink too much, but if you are insistent on doing that, then listen up. If you slow your consumption of alcohol your body will be able to deal with it a bit more effectively. Since your stomach has less surface area then your intestines, keeping the alcohol there, slows down the absorption of it as well. One way of doing this is to have a full stomach, there is a valve between your stomach and your intestines, and when your tummy is empty, the alcohol goes right through, so more of it gets absorbed more quickly, but when your stomach is full, that valve stays shut while your stomach dissolves the food.

Something that is know to work is eating something greasy before drinking helps you stay sober longer, this is true since that valve at the bottom of the stomach  will stay shut until the food has been dissolved, and greasy food, in general, take longer to break down then other food. Now all of these things slow down the absorption, and not stop it, so you may be more likely to over do it even more with out realising it, so lets say you still wake up with the infamous hangover, what should you do?

This image shows a lady trying to survive a hangover in a place most do.

Well a general rule of thumb is to drink water, or any liquids that do not have alcohol to replenish that missing water in your body. If you were unfortunate to leave your dinner on the side of the pavement, you should try your best to replenish those missing nutrients as well, so something greasy in the morning may also be a good idea. Stay in bed if you can as this will allow your body to sort itself out, and if you are craving something then you should try and get it as cravings are the bodies way of letting you know what it is missing. Bloody Mary's are some's solution to the hangover as well. 

This image shows one of the variations of the Bloody Mary

The Bloody Mary is a cocktail with many variations but almost all contain tomato juice, vodka, and salt or something salty. Now the liquids help replace the missing water, the salt replaces the missing electrolytes and the Vodka numbs the aches and pains temporarily while you start to replace everything that is missing and causing the hangover. Many people have said that this is the only solution that works, while others say it does not work at all. I am in favour of the former a bit more since it does replace some of the needed missing agents but there are others that help as well.

None the less, after the day is out you should start to feel better, and may face it all again next weekend. Thank you for reading today's post, and if you have any ways to get out of a hangover or remedies for them the morning after, please share them with us along with any drinking stories that you may have, down in the comments below or on Facebook/Twitter. If you know of anyone who likes to learn, or needs a way to get over a hangover, please share this with them as I am sure they will thank you for making them read this post when they have to stare at the bright gleaming screen to find the answer, trust me they will enjoy it, (teehee). If you would like to see more posts as they are published, please like us on our official Facebook page and follow us on Twitter, using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. I hope you have/had a fantastic day and that future hangovers do not occur, or are in effect for a very small duration in time.

Stay sober my drinking friends.