Hi, everybody! Still here, although you may not have thought so, since it’s been longer than I realized since I last posted. The thing is, I’ve been checking back in to see if anyone’s posted any comments, questions, critiques, etc. and still nothing, with one exception, a guy (presumably, by the name) who sent me the following: “I have a question. How can I contact you?” However, he never said what the question was. I actually e-mailed him back, which I don’t intend to do regularly, but since it had been nearly a week since he wrote in, I wanted to make sure he hadn’t given up. I never heard back, and still have no idea what he wanted to know. That was the only comment, other than a few test comments by me or my friends visiting the site. I don’t know what it will take, you’d think curing osteoporosis, diabetic retinopathy, and most cancers, with links to the research behind them, would at least elicit a few questions, but so far, except the aforementioned response, nothing, not a single one. I have spent a good deal of time on this so far, and intend to do so in the future, if there’s any possibility someone is reading it. Tonight I joined Facebook ™ and posted this address on it, so I hope that might interest someone enough to tell me if there’s anybody out there (credits to Pink Floyd and Elvin Bishop).
Theere are many things I have yet to discuss, and one major experiment upon which I shall shortly embark, and I would like some feedback regarding it. This concerns the highly volatile behaviour of Humulin ™, as demonstrated the last two days when, starting with normal sugars both days, actually measured at 127 the 2nd day, ate only 5oz. (total) of rice, meat and vegetables (combined) the 1st day and 4oz. of the same the 2nd day (yesterday) and again watching my sugar rocket up to well over 200mg/dl both days. The first day my sugar didn’t return to normal until 14 hours later, and I ate 2oz. of homemade french fries (brazed in olive oil, not deep fried). Then it again shot up and I couldn’t eat again until I got up this morning, at which time I used a meter to check it and found it was 127, perhaps 10mg higher than I prefer before I eat, but I ate 1 oz. less for breakfast ( I couldn’t wait for it to drop further because I had to go to work) and again it shot up until 7.75 hrs later, when I measured it at 49. Of course with HU (hypoglycemia unawareness) I felt fine, I only checked it because I was little more tired than I expected to be. Again, and this is right at the start of the insulin peak activity, my sugar shot up again, it’s still as high 5 hours late, so I just took a fast-acting shot of Humalog ( which I rarely use) because I’m tired of going to bed hungry, so I should be able to eat shortly before retiring. Of course, I’ve been eating these Ore-Ida fries for more than a week now, having recently discovered them, in similar amounts, and on the other occasions, they barely raised my sugar at all, and it was down in a reasonable amount of time. That is until yesterday.
This erratic and unpredictable response of Humulin ™, which never, I repeat, never occurred with real insulin, is even more of a bane than the HU, and makes planning ahead more than 1 or 2 hours almost impossible. Even the HU could be handled if it ocurred at predictable times, I’d just make sure food was available when necessary, but as it is, I never know when I can next eat. And, of course, there are those days when it does just the opposite, refusing to rise despite repeated intake of food, not protein but carbs, which should raise it quickly.
So the question is; why does this happen? It can only be because of hepatic glucose release, unless someone can point out to me somewhere else the body stores sugar. Clearly 4oz. of food isn’t enough to maintain very high blood sugars for 14 hours! Especially when normally, that would only sustain me for about 2 to 4 hours, depending on where I am in the insulin activity cycle (onset, peak, offset). I talked this over with Andrew, a friend of mine who graduated from George Washington School of Medicine in DC, and he said it couldn’t be that because there would be high levels of ketones in my system and clearly, there weren’t since I wasn’t showing the ill effects that would result, and as mentioned before, this has been going on for ten years now, since being compelled to switch to Humulin ™, after animal insulin was abruptly pulled from the market in 1998. Nevertheless, unless someone has another explanation, and I invite comments, I believe my liver is kicking sugar into the system inappropriately.
After having observed this for many years, some things ocurred to me. Under Humulin ™, my body is now unable to manifest the usual adrenergic responses to shock, namely, pallor (paleness), tremors (shaking), muscle weakness, and confusion (which does occur, but only about a third of the time). At the same time, (although not when appropriate such as when my sugar is low) after eating even a small amount, large quantities of sugar are being released into the system. When you think about this, both these behaviours are ‘fight or flight’ responses, especially the release of glucose. I believe that under the effects of Humulin ™, the body is confusing these responses, and the signals which should have elicited the adrenal rections mentioned above, instead are causing the release of glucose, but again, at inappropriate times. If these reactions are being switched, perhaps a critical recognition protein (or something) can be introduced to restore normal responses. Now I have also noticed that the glucose release happens less often, although it does still happen sometimes, when I’m at home and more relaxed, so it seems to be linked to stress (although I like my job and don’t feel especially stressed when there), and that perhaps a mild sedative may go a long way to countering this effect. There is a class of drugs called benzodiazepines, sold under the pharmaceutical names Valium ™ and Xanax ™, no doubt familiar to many. However, there is a naturally ocurring benzodiazepine, the herb Valerian, which I occasionally use to help me sleep. Unlike the other two drugs, Valerian is non-addictive and can be taken regularly without side-effects. Sometime this week, I hope to pick up some and start drinking a cup when I get up ( it can be made into a tea, not very tasty, pretty vile actually, but it can be improved by adding cloves and/or sweetner). I hope it will help suppress the glucose release. I’ll post again soon with the results and again, I would very much like to hear from anyone out there with any comments. ‘Bye for now.
