Buckeye Blog - Living with Diabetes

Date: 09/09/19

A few weeks ago, a patient came to my office in tears about her recent diabetes diagnosis. “I’m the only one of my friends who has to do a complicated math problem before I eat anything, go anywhere, take a walk, or even before I go to sleep at night,” she said. “Even though my friends and family are very supportive, I feel very alone.”

She may be the only one of her friends with diabetes, but she is certainly not alone. In fact, 1.3 MILLION Ohioans have diabetes—that’s 13% of Ohio’s total population!

If you’re anything like me, you probably have friends and family members who are living with diabetes, too. So exactly what is diabetes? When you eat or drink, much of your food breaks down into a simple sugar called glucose. Then, glucose is transported through the bloodstream to your cells where it can be used to provide the energy your body needs for daily activities.

A hormone called insulin regulates the amount of glucose in your bloodstream. Insulin is always being released in small amounts by the pancreas. When the amount of glucose in your blood rises to a certain level, the pancreas will release more insulin to push more glucose into the cells. This causes the glucose levels in your blood to drop.

To keep your blood glucose levels from getting too low, your body signals you to eat and releases glucose from storage kept in the liver. People with diabetes either don't make insulin, or their body's cells are resistant to insulin. This leads to high levels of sugar circulating in the blood (high blood sugar). Although there is no cure for diabetes, it can be well managed with education, diet, exercise, and regular blood sugar monitoring.

I did some digging and discovered dozens of bloggers who share their thoughts and feelings about living with diabetes. It’s a great way to connect with others who are dealing with the same condition to learn new diet and lifestyle tips, ways to deal with the feelings of isolation and frustration, and more. Use a search engine to look up “diabetic bloggers” and you’ll come up with loads of options. Here are a few examples: DiabetesSisters, OnTrack Diabetes and ASweetLife. Many of them even include forums, so you can jump in on the conversation yourself!

 Brad Lucas MD, is the Interim Chief Medical Officer for Buckeye Health Plan