#1470 Small Sips: That's Just Diabetes
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Diabetes isn’t the only factor affecting blood sugar—other variables like stress and hormones play a role too.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 00:00 Hello friends, welcome to the sips series. These foundational strategies were nominated by listeners. They told me, these are the ideas in the podcast that truly made a difference for them. So I distilled them down into short, actionable insights. There's not going to be any fluff or complex jargon, just practical, real world diabetes management that you can start applying today. And I know your time is valuable, so we're keeping these short. Another small sip will come out once a week for the foreseeable future. If you like what you hear, check out the Pro Tip series or the bold beginning series for more. Those series are available in the menu at Juicebox podcast.com and you can find complete lists of all of the series in the featured tab on the private Facebook group. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. The questions you have, I guarantee you there's answers to them in the Juicebox Podcast, and it's all free. You so Jenny, this one's weird, because it's more of a thing I said one time, and then we can, kind of like, pick it apart a little bit. Okay. So I think the point I was trying to make to people back then was that you just shouldn't take what someone tells you and just blindly do it, especially if it's not working. And I think the way I illuminated that idea back then was I said, if you were being taught to drive a car, and for some reason, the person the instructor said to you, just push halfway down on the brake when you come up on a curve, and you came up on your first curve, and you pressed halfway down on the brake, and your car skid off and went into the bushes, and you got your car out of the bushes, and you got back in your car the next day, and you approached that curve, would you press the brake halfway and go? Well, this is what the instructor told me to do. Or would you say, I wonder what happens if I push on this thing a little harder, right? So, right. So in that driving situation, everyone learns how to drive and doesn't know what the hell they're doing at first, right? And you make these quick adjustments, Trial by Fire adjustments often while you're learning to drive, which
Jennifer Smith, CDE 02:39 is why my father took me to a parking lot exactly like so he could yell stuff. We're not gonna go on the real street, we're gonna go around the parking lot. We could yell
Scott Benner 02:47 stop 1000 times and still have trouble, right? Or have time. But my point is that a lot of this, my expectation from making the podcast from so long, is that people just have different personalities. Like, of course, somebody goes to the doctor, and the doctor says, halfway down that the brake pedal, they will not change. And there are plenty of people who hear that and go, Hey, look, I drove into the bushes. I'm going to push harder on I don't care what you say, if you're in that first camp related to diabetes, you could end up for the rest of your life making small decisions that could go much better and never will. And so to me, I think you have to take control. And by control I mean a little bit of responsibility and a little bit of understanding how insulin works. You're gonna hear me say this over and over again in all these episodes, but diabetes type one using insulin, it's a lot about timing and amount. Relate that to my little story, if it helps you or not. But what I'm saying is you got to learn how to set your settings. You got to learn how to change your settings. You got to learn when to Bolus a little more at a meal, when to Bolus little less at a meal that you don't always need 15 carbs to stop below like these little things will change your life if you take control of them, right?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 04:05 And it goes along with also the concept of using, if you are using a continuous monitor, using that to your advantage, because then you can see, well, goodness, when I pushed on the brakes a little bit didn't work fast enough, or it didn't work the way that I expected. When I gave a little bit more and I got a little bit more comfortable, look at the difference. Look at the change in the graph, right and that's how you can evaluate thankfully, you know, we have that information now where finger sticks only gave you a blip in time right now, and you missed all of the information in between, so you couldn't make as much, I guess, true adjustment. That made sense if you're
Scott Benner 04:49 an old head and you've been around forever and you were resisting, you know, technology apply the brakes, idea to that, you know, like, push harder. Get a CGM if you can afford it, you're. Insurance covers it, and you don't have one, please get one. Like, even, just try it. Don't put it on once I go the thing. Like, just wear it for a little while. Like, try to really live with it for a bit. Because I promise you, it's going to change your health, and it'll change your psychological health, it'll it'll change your physical health. It'll make diabetes easier. So, I mean, that's one idea. Like, if you're out there managing like a baller with MDI, I'm not saying go get a pump, right? But if you're struggling all the time, maybe give it a shot. You know what I mean? And I didn't mean for this to be about technology, really, but what you said really, kind of like, lit me up inside. Like you've got to be willing to try things. Maybe that really is the message, right? Like, you have to try things to see what happens. You can't just say, Well, the doctor told me, and this is what happened. So I did what I was supposed to do, and it didn't work. That's just diabetes. Because, I promise you, it's not just diabetes. And I don't mean this in a boastful way, but if Jenny came to your house and bullish, you, it wouldn't go that way, right? And if I did it, no, can you imagine, if you, like, showed up all proud, you're like, I'll take care of this. Nothing, nothing changed. Just because someone didn't give you good information doesn't mean that's your lot in life. Like, you can go get that information for yourself, correct? You
Jennifer Smith, CDE 06:20 can and again, where the technology piece of that comes in, I think what it offers is the person who is more the personality that would take what was suggested. This is the black and white rule. This is what I was told to do, but without any new technology, even as much as just a CGM, you're in the dark about what that recommendation is or is not doing well for you, and you have nothing else to go on. So if you want to gain some confidence and be able to step outside of just a baseline recommendation, not that you're not going to take it from the doctor or the clinician, you're going to try it. But then with more information, you can actually make adjustments, or you can go back and say, You know what? I tried this. This is what I saw. Don't you think I could do it this way? Right? If you feel the need to really get the recommendation back from your doctor or your clinician, then do your own homework and bring them back some information so that they can help you further, because it's not that they don't want to, right? And
Scott Benner 07:25 if your clinician ends up being not as good of an instructor as Jenny's father was, and I, I'll, I'll sound like I'm pushing people towards the thing, but it doesn't need to be my thing. Go find a friend who knows how to drive and ask them for some advice. Go to the Juicebox Podcast, Facebook group and ask there. Like, go find another person with type one, and you can't find a person with type one. I got over 55,000 of them. You can go talk to in the Facebook group. Facebook group is free. It's very kind, gentle place. Head over there. Ask your question out loud, mate. Hey, listen, I've been seeing this happening. I told I told my doctor. My doctor says, Don't worry about it. I'm listening to this podcast now. I'm worried about it, right? What do you guys think? Because the tiniest bit you don't know which tiny bit of information is going to just light a candle in your mind and make you go, Oh, I understand. Now, at some place on this list of shorts that we're doing, someone said the thing that changed my life was when Scott told the story about the M, M's, like, that simple, when I just said, like, and we'll do it another episode, but it's a parable, like, it's a it's a 62nd story about a thing that happened to me and my daughter in an endos office, and 18 years later, some lady in Kalamazoo is like, Oh my God, my blood sugars are better now, because she heard that was the one thing that made her mind click into and she went, Oh, I know what to do now, right?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 08:46 Yeah, well, I will actually to just put a plus towards the Facebook group. I think the the quality, sort of experts, I guess they're called now, I don't do much social media in Yes, so
Scott Benner 09:00 I have a handful of lovely people who volunteer their time as group experts, yes, when you ask a question, they will answer your question with links from the podcast that should help you, which
Jennifer Smith, CDE 09:11 I love, because, again, while it's valuable, the whole diabetes online community is valuable in many, many different arenas, CGM, pump, use, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. But I think you can, especially as a person asking a baseline question, you can get overwhelmed with the responses. And because each and every response is the lived person, the lived experience of that person, this, I see your issue is such and such, give this a try, and the next person is like, Well, that didn't work for me. This is what worked for me. The original question is, I know what to do. I got 50 responses here, right? But I love that the experts step in and they say, Hey, if you want this whole concept described to you, go here, right? Yeah, it's great. It's definitely
Scott Benner 10:01 the internet. Like, it's never gonna not be the internet, right? But no, I've definitely seen people like, I have a stomach ache, and five minutes later they have celiac I'm like, I was a pretty big leap. But Jenny's point is, is valid, and it's what makes it so valuable, which is, everyone comes in with their experience. And the truth is, that's a real post I saw recently, hey, my kid's stomach hurts. Someone said that happened to my kid and it ended up being celiac. Somebody said that happened to my kid and it ended up being stress that happened to my kid ended up being constipation. And I said, Hey, that happened to my kid and it ended up being this. And we all and you know what in there somewhere is your answer, right? Like, right, very likely of all the responses that came in. Now, I know it gets scary because one person's like, Oh, my stomach hurt once is because I was shot at the bus station and, you know, like, can you like, oh, that's probably not it. I would just take what everybody says, write it down and go, I'm going to try to figure out if in here lies the answer, right? And that, and it normally does. But you know, between me and you and everybody listening, please don't just accept that's just diabetes. It's the way it is. There's nothing I can do about it. And as much as I think there are tons and tons and tons of wonderful clinicians. I also believe there's probably an equal amount of them who are winging in a prayer in it and don't know what the hell they're telling you, and they've told you something you think is a rule, and it's not even right, and you're going to go live your whole life that way. So check and do it for yourself. Push down on the break if you're running into the weeds, is what I would say, good idea. Are you starting to see patterns, but you can't quite make sense of them? You're like, Oh, if I Bolus here, this happens, but I don't know what to do. Should I put in a little less, a little more, if you're starting to have those thoughts, if you're starting to think this isn't going the way the doctor said it would. I think I see something here, but I can't be sure. Once you're having those thoughts, you're ready for the diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast. It begins at Episode 1000 you can also find it at Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu, and you can find a list in the private Facebook group, just check right under the featured tab at the top, it'll show you lists of a ton of stuff, including the Pro Tip series, which runs from episode 1000 to 1025 if you or a loved one, was just diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're looking for some fresh perspective, the bold beginning series from The Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CD CES, a registered dietitian and a type one for over 35 years, and in the bowl beginning series, Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. The series begins at episode 698, in your podcast player, or you can go to Juicebox podcast.com and click on bold beginnings in the menu. I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed, you're following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
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