Scott Benner 6/13/23 Scott Benner 6/13/23

#932 Diabetes Myths: Snake Oil

A brand new series examining the myths surrounding diabetes.

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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 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 932 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today, Jenny and I are going to talk about cures for diabetes. That's right. It's another diabetes myth episode. And you will not believe what the listeners told me that other people have told them. While you're listening, 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. We're becoming bold with insulin. Here are a few things not to forget. If you want to save money, you can get a year supply of vitamin D for free and five free travel packs. With your first order of ag one from athletic greens at my link athletic greens.com forward slash juice box. You will save 35% off your entire order at cozy earth.com with the offer code juice box at checkout and you'll save 10% off your first month of therapy@betterhelp.com forward slash juicebox. If you'd like to hire Jenny, she works at integrated diabetes.com Check her out

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by two devices that my daughter has been wearing forever since she was a toddler. The first Dexcom today the podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G seven. But you can get that G six too if you want it. Both of them at my link dexcom.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored by Omni pod. Today I'm gonna be telling you about the Omni pod five and the Omni pod dash. My daughter has been wearing it on the pod since she was four years old. You can to Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. That's where you'll get started. Learn more. The whole shebang happens right there. Hey, Jamie, how are you?

Unknown Speaker 2:14
I'm fine. How are you? Scott?

Scott Benner 2:15
I'm good. I'm glad to hear that your voice is better.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:18
It is I found hopefully like me again.

Scott Benner 2:22
I actually got a note from somebody that said, How long will Jenny's voice be like this?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:27
Meaning it was not very, it was not preferable?

Scott Benner 2:31
I guess they weren't thrilled with it. But anyway, we are let's see what we've done so far with the myth series. I think we've got four in the can, as they say, completed. And today we're going to do I think you and I need some fun. So let's do miracle cures for diabetes.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:53
Oh, I'm sure there I've remembering the list there. Were there were some really unusual ones on this list. If I remember correctly, yes.

Scott Benner 3:00
Oh, we're not going to start with cinnamon. That's too easy. Okay. It's going to be my contention that it's not that people believe that cinnamon cures diabetes, it's that they've heard something. And then when they hear the word diabetes, and they want to help you their little synopsis fire in their brain and they go Have you tried this? And I mean, and like yes, yes, that's what I think. If that's not the case, I will reiterate here as a species, as humans have have cured, like, seven or eight things. And correct right three or five very much right and three or four of them aren't actually cures we just I think we inoculated people are correct. That's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:49
how I was gonna say a lot of them are actually now. Right their immunization for something. And they clearly work or we would have a lot more cases of measles and all of those that we get inoculated against as we're sort of going through the growing years and even as adults sometimes. There are some that you need to get to yet again, depending on your age through the life cycle.

Scott Benner 4:12
So polio comes to mind I've Yes, very close friend's father who just passed recently lived his whole life, you know, with a terrible affliction. It's like, but you don't see that much anymore. So is it cute is polio cured? No, it's right. We've inoculated it away as best as we can. Correct So i Alright, so I said let me skip all of the comments about cinnamon we'll get to that. Okay. I just want to I'm going to start with okra water. This person says they were told that okra water would cure their diabetes. Now let's try to figure out why that is. So diabetes UK says outside of scientific research, many people with diabetes have reported decreased blood sugar levels after smoke can cut up okra pieces in water overnight and then drinking the juice. In Turkey roasted okra seeds have been used as traditional diabetes medicine for generations.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:13
Okay, interesting. I would expect the first the first thing that you read makes me think that and I'm sorry to say for those of you who really like okra please enjoy your okra. I have not found a pleasing way to enjoy okra ever. It is it is slimy it Blair is the way I like think of okra and I like a lot of weird things. I would expect that it's the fiber and the that that slime Enos that I don't like. It almost creates a like a sludge sort of that's not the right word to use, but you get the effect. It sort of creates almost like a coding I would expect maybe in the intestines as it gets digested. This is all assumption, right?

Scott Benner 6:00
This whole thing is going to be assumption no more correct.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:03
That's that's what I would assume is potentially one of the reasons that you may get maybe a lower glycemic impact when you eat it with foods.

Scott Benner 6:14
Do you remember Olestra? Yes,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:17
okay. Oh, God, it was made in potato chips. Right?

Scott Benner 6:20
Right. They were putting it in potato chips. They were saying like, Here are these are potato chips that will make you gain weight. But no, but you spent your day in the bathroom. Yes. But it did the same thing. Right? Like it literally create a slip and slide inside of you. So yeah, that's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:33
a great yeah, so

Scott Benner 6:34
your body couldn't absorb anything. People were having like, they were expelling, like grease. From there.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:41
They were having fatty stool is what we call that's a

Scott Benner 6:44
very nice way of saying it. But when you're shooting grease out of your butt, you gotta be like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:50
just gonna sit the bathroom. Thank you so

Scott Benner 6:52
much, honey, honey. did not enter. I think the Exxon Valdez sank in the toilet. So anyway, I think that's what you're getting at. Right? It's like so maybe okra has that kind of feeling. I want to say here it says okra is also high in fructans, a carb that may cause digestive issues and some people when consumed in large amounts. I also think it's time to say we're not telling you to do any of this stuff like, Yeah, correct, right? Yes. This is a list of things from listeners that they've heard from other people, Laird with my assumption that people aren't being you know, they aren't being cruel when they say stuff like this. And Jenny is not just a nutritionist, but you have a couple of like, hippie dippie ideas about food. So I love you in this conversation. Yay. Honestly, yay,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:48
well, and something else that might I think it crosses across, it crosses many of the things that we'll probably talk about that we're like brought up as people commented on them. In this case, I would expect, someone decided to do some type of lab trial with rats or mice with this after having found people noting, right, from a historical standpoint that some cultures were using this long term for managing glucose levels, I'd expect again, it has more ties to type two diabetes than to type one diabetes. Not that it couldn't cross the line and help if it is a gut level. It could help in both cases. But I'd expect somebody probably did some rat studies and fed them enough okra to notice a

Scott Benner 8:38
difference. As I always say, people with diabetes, we're busy trying to cure them, we should be busy trying to turn them into mice, because we have no trouble curing diabetes in mice, that if they could just turn you into a mouse Jenny, cure your diabetes, then turn you back into a person. This whole thing is set.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:56
If we're all cured that exactly.

Scott Benner 9:01
Why would someone be told that magnesium would cure their diabetes? Let's see. Magnesium appears to help manage blood sugar levels among people with diabetes. Also, those who tend to consume less magnesium typically have poor blood sugar regulation, higher risk of type two than people who consume higher amounts. top of my head I take magnesium oxide to stay regular with that

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:27
it does help with digestion. Absolutely. So if you're eliminating more appropriately, yes. I mean, magnesium, obviously, it's a mineral. It's a very common mineral in the body. You can easily get the the level of magnesium tested with a lab draw. So you can actually see am I deficient? And for you know why you said you're taking it it helps with elimination, it helps just with regularity of elimination. A lot of people end up taking it in the evening so that overnight it works a little better. You go to the bathroom first thing and then Warning can also be used, you know, pregnancy wise for helping as women tend to get constipated in pregnancy many times. So it's one of the safe things that you can kind of use in that regard. I mean, it's

Scott Benner 10:14
magnesium comes in three forms, right? Glycine,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:18
oxide, me Yeah, magnesium oxide,

Scott Benner 10:24
glycinate,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:24
glycinate. And citrate Yeah, if I remember correctly, yes. And they

Scott Benner 10:29
are on all three of those things do different

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:33
different things or are absorbed differently in the body. I mean, magnesium, it also plays a big role in a lot of the different organs in your body, especially from a muscle level, you might have heard magnesium being utilized kind of similar to potassium for like, muscle function, muscle soreness, those types of things. It has implications in like how the heart muscle contracts, and all of those things. So making sure your magnesium levels are optimal to begin with, just get a lab draw and see if you're okay. I mean, and that doesn't necessarily mean that you need to take magnesium just because people with diabetes do tend to often be lower in magnesium than the general public does.

Scott Benner 11:18
Okay. Let's see. We'll do a fun one. Oh. If I start taking Wim Hof ice baths, my type one diabetes will eventually disappear. What the heck?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:33
Do you know Wim? Hof. I've read the book. I also use some of his podcasts he does. I will say that there is not there's not craziness in it in a broad sense. But in terms of taking away your time on diabetes, that's absolutely false.

Scott Benner 11:53
Surely you don't think if I just pop a magnesium and getting a cold tub this Alala?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:57
I promise it will not hear anything that is Ealing, euthyroid, or iron level or anything for you, I promise.

Scott Benner 12:07
But not a bad thing to do is what you're saying? No, I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:10
mean, in fact, a there's a lot of really good information from the Wim Hof Method. Like I said, the book is a really informative and very, it's very interesting book in terms of what cold sort of immersion therapy does for the body on an immune level and everything. It's it's very interesting, but it will it will not cure your diabetes.

Scott Benner 12:36
What are those things? They called shock protein benefits? Like is that what they say? Like your body makes cold shock proteins? When you do like those? I don't know. Like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:47
has, it has really an impact mostly on like, the inflammatory processes in your body? Yeah. So going beyond that? I wouldn't delve into any other like physiological. Because I haven't read the book in a couple of years. But yeah,

Scott Benner 13:05
well, you know, it's so hard to decide what's the difference between junk science or what they call bro science nowadays, right? Or? And, and if something's helping you, like, who cares? Honestly, like, you know, if you jump into icy water once a day, and you feel better, then God bless, like, what do I care? But I think the problem arises, and and it's seen throughout your health, not just in like one place where the expectation is, like, if a doctor says to you, I don't know, hey, you're low in vitamin D, we want you to have higher vitamin D, right? That's a fairly common thing for people with autoimmune issues. And maybe people in general, because we don't seem to go outside anymore. And by the way, Canada is on fire and the sun can't get through. So, so far, it's a little vitamin D deficient right now. And Canada pulled together. Maybe not honestly, just to put some more on that. Please help us out. Help us out. My sky was orange yesterday. I know Canada was on fire, but I also couldn't breathe so helped me. Nevertheless, it's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:09
passed out of our area for them. But we had a couple of multiple days in a row last week where we had air quality at like, horrible levels. And at the end of the day, the sun was like this, like blood red. And we had almost like this hazy quality to the air that was similar to what we usually get in July, August when our humidity is like 85 90% all the time. But yes, I am not affected from what I can tell by any of that. I don't have allergies, thank goodness. Other people have significant

Scott Benner 14:46
gave me a headache. My wife felt nauseous when she went outside. And no matter where you were, where I lived for about 48 hours, it smelled like 20 feet from you. There was a fire that somebody threw water on on, like, wow, so you really had significant? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, New York friends and my son were like, sent home from work. So like in the middle of the day anyway, that's our point. The point is, is that your doctor tells you hey, you're low in vitamin D, I'd like to see your vitamin D higher. And you do that you take your vitamin D, there's a number of ways to take it. Jenny's gonna tell you to take it orally under the drop with a drop. You can take it once a day, like I mean, listen, I'm not a doctor. And this isn't advice. I take 5000 I use a vitamin D every day. I take 4000 Okay, some people get 150 1000 iu tablet once a week, a lot of type ones probably recognize that I've heard that's not the best way to do it. But it's it's done that way because people forget to take their stuff, if not, right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:50
And also because it forget, yes. But I think it's also a very easy therapeutic dose that the doctor thinks, well, once a week, they can do this. It's such a large dose, they're going to get enough at a time that we can easily do a lab check sooner and evaluate whether or not the levels are coming up. But for somebody with low vitamin D levels, like when I was initially checked, years ago, my vitamin D was 18. Yeah, optimal is 50 to 70. Your lab will usually say 30 to 100, Manos 18. And my endo was like this, this is wrong. We're gonna reach nearly all lab mistake, right? It came back it was eight t and again, that was his, he's like you're taking 50,000 I use he's like, it's gonna work fast. It's a really big dose. I took it. We retested and I think my level was like 22. Okay, he's like, really. And that's when I started seeing a naturopath. And she's the one that recommended the draft. She said there's an absorptive issue. She said, it's not uncommon with people with some type of autoimmune condition, a gut level, inability to absorb even that huge dose, it didn't do much. I started taking the drops, and it made a major difference

Scott Benner 17:04
in your level. But my point my level, you're gonna be a great person to ask, once your vitamin D was up, you didn't have a moment, right? Where you're like, Oh, my God, the world's brighter, like, everything feels different. And it's just bright.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:18
But I will tell you that I did notice a difference in my overall blood sugar management. Okay, cool, which was not, it was not poor to begin with. When I had that level of 18. I was, I was doing enough. I think of my own micromanagement at that point. Without the smart technology we have today. I mean, I just had a pump and a CGM at that point. But I noticed once my levels got up to level to where they should be, and were maintained there. I felt better because my blood sugars were easier to navigate, they were easier to manage. And it it's relative because vitamin D works on the cellular level, it works in how the body responds to glucose, it works on how the body receives and utilizes insulin, and on the internal cellular level, how the body uses the glucose once it gets in there. So optimizing vitamin D is not going to cure you. This is not a cure. But

Scott Benner 18:16
yeah, my that's all actually amazing information. I'm glad we have that conversation. I just wanted to tell people, just because you do something doesn't mean like rainbows and sunshine all the time. But it also doesn't mean it's not valuable for you. And a little bit here and a little bit there. Like all these silly things that were like going through if all of them have some small impact on blood glucose and whatever great you know, correct? Yeah, yes,

Unknown Speaker 18:46
absolutely.

Scott Benner 18:48
Jenny listen to this one. I received a video a video of I just mixed up a couple words there I received a video this person says with a number of different foot massages, all told to me to cure my diabetes and how long would it take to cure her diabetes if the the foot massages three days? Just three days Jenny?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:15
Really, man I gotta find the right the right massage therapist mine clearly are getting paid for things

Scott Benner 19:25
reflexologists sucks. massages to cure diabetes. Where is this coming from? Yeah, I'm

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:32
I wanted to look like I'm not I mean, again, in a science based way. We do know that things like acupuncture acupressure, the right type of massage to the right area of the body. can absolutely this is not this is the easiest way I can describe it opens up pathways that may have been blocked from an inflammatory type. type of thing that can again, encourage your body to flow better with energy and all of this, I feel like I'm very earthy, crunchy, right? I'm talking about this. But clearly, all of these have a root in some type of root research and experimentation. But it's unfortunate that it goes as far as saying this is an all out cure. Yeah.

Scott Benner 20:27
So what ends up happening is like, I'm seeing a lot of returns here on Google that massaging your feet could help with diabetic like foot and leg pain. Yes. So okay, then I see somebody who's clearly trying to make money off of the idea, right. And, and this is really the crux of this conversation. In my opinion, I'm gonna see if I can get their website to load Apparently, they're not making much money because they can't afford a good server, hold on a second. But you can make an appointment with them foot reflexology to control and reduce and prevent diabetes. But when you click on the link, there's a ton of ads there selling things. Like it's, it's just the way to draw you in to try to get you to spend some money with them. Yes, and that that really is the shame of all this, and where I think a lot of this gets proliferated from, because at some point, like us, I'm going to use the low carb, like, diabetes thing is an exam. Sure, right. Or coaching is another thing, right? So at some point, someone says, Listen, I'll put it on me for a second. Years ago, I said, I talked about diabetes in a certain way, I say some same things over and over again, they seem to lead to my daughter having a one C and the low sixes. I don't, it's not prepackaged, I didn't write a book about it, I didn't call it something. But these things seem to work, I launch a podcast, it becomes incredibly popular. And now you can look around media, and see two dozen people, if you listen to them talk, they are parroting you and I and changing some of the words, and but at the end of it, they're also offering you coaching, and they give you a little bit of information, and then tell you how for just $60 a week or $200 a month or blah, blah, blah, they're going to explain to you which basically they're gonna explain to you like, I don't know, fat rises and Pre-Bolus I can probably, and probably Yeah, and they're gonna make a little money, and they're gonna keep going, they're gonna get the next soccer and they're gonna do it again, and again, and again. And that's what this stuff is to me, like, you know, it's, I heard cinnamon, so I'll make cinnamon tablets and all market them to people with diabetes. And there are these many millions of people have type two diabetes, and these many millions of people have type one diabetes. And if we just sell to a small slice of them, we're going to be rich selling cinnamon capsules. And that's in the end. And then they keep that conversation going. And I hate to say, but I see online, I see people making a living, teaching diabetics to eat low carb, and they sell their services. And then they go into forums, and they start arguments with people, because that argument will draw on at least five or six people who go I do want to hear more about that. And then they make another $1,000 that month off those five or six people, it's all marketing. It just really is, you know, sure. Yeah. Just to say this, like, in fairness, I just found out a way I found a way to make money. That doesn't charge the listener. It really is, you know what I mean? Like? Correct. So yes,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:38
well, and many, many times too, we have to look at what is what is the knowledge base of the person who is providing wherever the education comes from, and whatever source you choose to get your education or information from? What's what's their background? Are you getting it from a quality, a quality place? Does that person really understand? And if they do, maybe you're willing to pay for their service. I mean, I know a couple of people that have come to me choosing one, like, nutrition plan or another whether it's high carb, low carb in between, hold 30, whatever it might be. And they're either confused and need help and guidance on that path because they want to stick with it or they're like, I don't think it's working. But what I was doing before wasn't working either. Can you just tell me what to do? Right. So I think people are searching for what they think is going to help them the best and where you get it from again, I think is it's really important to do your research.

Scott Benner 24:43
I also I think you make a good point. Like if if I'm struggling that much and I give a guy $1,000 And I'm not struggling as much anymore. Well then, like it was worth it right on you know, I'm saying I think it's interesting that if I go to Instagram I don't see anybody who doesn't have a six pack and isn't super handsome and also has diabetes telling me about diabetes, right? Like I don't see. And just because you had a baby and you have diabetes doesn't make you a good, you know, crack guide through your pregnancy. But that is what happens a lot. It's the it's the Instagram mixture with this desire and need to make money. And like, just think about it. Like if if I was tall and super handsome and young, and I might have been like, well, I'll take a bunch of pictures of myself without my shirt on. And I'll say like, you know, I did this too. And so could you and like, you know, meanwhile, you know, I say all the time, like looking good in a bikini doesn't make you a diabetes expert. But those seem to be the peep the girls that we pay attention to on Instagram, right? It's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:49
the ones that get the clicks, because it's more of a visual to begin with, because it then leads down the path of, well, if you're doing it the right way. And you it's entirely a look, right? It's entirely this person looks like they've got it all together, look at them. I want to look like them is the first thought. And because they're living with something similar to me, must be doable. I need their tips. It must be doable. It must be something that's I'm missing an application.

Scott Benner 26:19
And I don't want to say that there aren't people out there who are handsome and helping people I'm sure there are. But right. I am in a unique position to tell you how the back end of this all works. Okay. People offer me money to do a lot of things all the time, and I turned a good chunk of it down because it seems 30 Although I am gonna. I am gonna make a video for us med soon because I was like, that's nice. I can do that. Now that I've lost some weight, Jenny. I was like pretty cool.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:48
Oh, you're like Scott looks okay, I can do this.

Scott Benner 26:52
I started I was like, How do I cover these dark circles under my eyes for that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:56
But did she give you some fancy makeup tips? Scott has makeup. That should be the name of this episode, Scott has makeup. Let me just

Scott Benner 27:05
save you see a video of me. For us med somewhere. I'm definitely making me wearing makeup under my eyes. So funny. But But I think that it's just it's important to know, it's a scam. It's a scraping effort, like, right? Like, I only need five people this week, like these aren't people trying to be rich, they're trying to pay their bills. So they can get five people to give them $50 Then every week they make 250 bucks, and they pay their bills. And then they it's a business model where you only really have to have a hate to say this, it's very reminiscent of only fans, you only need 1000 or so people sending you $20 a month, and you're making $20,000 a month.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:45
And it goes right with these myth type of topics. Because it gets it gets you get drawn in from a click here and a click there and the person who is going to guide you through using milk, cat or whatever.

Scott Benner 28:03
Jenny, let's not say no for my cat, let's go to the one that I know you're waiting for.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:07
Okay, I did want to before we go to that one is I did want to talk about the massage because we kind of moved off from that. But it did want to say that there is there is I don't know if you ever put links or give links or anything for people to get some information. But the diabetes spectrum actually has a really good article on using massage and diabetes management again, not from a cure standpoint, but the real science kind of behind it. And what it may be beneficial for when you are living with diabetes and maybe even further with like foot conditions because of diabetes. So I can send you a link

Scott Benner 28:50
if you wanted to know, please. It's diabetes spectrum is diabetes spectrum. Yes. All right, Jenny. I feel like we should have a drumroll here because someone who listens to this podcast was told if they drank

before I started the ads in your mind, think of something you really wouldn't want to drink. That's what's about the Beatles you but first, Omni pod five. Oh goodness gracious mate, the Omni pod small tubeless able to be worn in the shower or while you're swimming. You don't have to take it off like those two pumps. You know those two pumps are like take me off before you go in the shower. Now at the Omni pod, jump right in wash right off, jump right out. No loss of insulin, no interruption of your algorithm algorithm you say of course, the Omni pod five is an algorithm based pump that works with your Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor, making decisions for you about insulin. Fantastic, right? I mean, you count the carbs and all but Your blood sugar starts going up. And the modifiers like, what will What's this about? And then if it's appropriate, gives you more insulin. Hello, say it thinks you're gonna get low later starts taking insulin away to try to stop that. Cha Ching. What am I saying to you omnipod.com forward slash juicebox. These algorithms, I hear people say it's the future. Well, let me tell you a secret. The future is here. If you're not playing up here in the future with the rest of us, you could be omnipod.com forward slash juice box is the best and first step to get started with the AMI pod five. Now if you're not looking for the algorithm, you can still get to listen wonderful with Omni pod with the Omni pod dash. Also available at my link. There are links in the show notes of the podcast player you're listening in right now. And links at juicebox podcast.com to Omni pod and our next sponsor Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G seven ng six continuous glucose monitoring system. My daughter happens to be wearing the G seven right now. It is teeny tiny. It is super flat. It works terrific. We love it. Now I'm going to be doing some good sensors on my fingers here. 1248 take 10 A subtract five that gives you five then he add 25 That's 30. And then there's 52 weeks in a year. So you divide that Arden's worn about seven or eight Dexcom g7. So far, it's been absolutely terrific. We're really enjoying it. Honestly, it's nice and small. The the insertion process, I mean, to call it a process is probably too much right? Just, it's over before it starts. The warm up. I don't know if you know this, the warm up for the g7 is 30 minutes. It's fantastic. And you can actually overlap it with the other one that you're wearing so that it's warmed up. When you switch it I can't explain it all to you now. But yeah, you know what, I could explain it to you. Let me get a drink. All right, I'm back from my drink. Dexcom g7 First and foremost, has a grace period. So it doesn't just end it's not like hey, the sensor stops working at 9pm. So her 9pm stops working. There's actually a significant grace period after that. But I'm talking about putting on the new sensor, you can put it on while the old ones still working and let it you know, acclimate to your body. And then wait the 30 minutes, it's already acclimated and it's ready to go. Then you switch off the old one, connect the new one, and you have numbers right away. So if you're a little thoughtful about it, there really is no warmup time where you're not without a sensor. And if you'd like to let your sensors warm up longer could do that too. I know what you're thinking, tell me a little more Scott, I don't have time to tell you more than music is going to run out you gotta go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box right now to get your G seven to get your G six to get started CGM are where it's at. Be there with them

alright guys, I appreciate it. When you use my links when you're interested in DAX COMM And on the pod and everything else that helps support the show keeps it free, and allows conversations like this, where I'm about to tell you what to listen to the podcast was told to drink if they wanted to cure their diabetes. Are you ready? Trust me, you're not ready, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Someone who listens to this podcast was told if they drank cow urine, it would cure their diabetes. So, okay, so you think that

Jennifer Smith, CDE 33:40
one I can't even imagine has researched behind? I don't know what researcher would have been like, Yeah, this is a good idea.

Scott Benner 33:47
Oh, but it does. Really? Oh my god. It's so effective treatment by cow urine therapy. Consumption of Go muttrah ark might reduce blood glucose levels sulfur present in Callier and may act like soulful Lurie's, or it might increase insulin receptors sensitivity or cause an increased amount of insulin release. Now, here's what I want you to listen to. Might comes up a lot in that sentence. Like so it let me say it this way, if you all send me $50 I might send you back 100 I'll put my address at the end. Might is the big word here might increase also, it's just saying it's about something about sulfur, like but and then you think well this is going to be one crazy return. And you know, how could that possibly be anything else but there it is? Cow Urine genes cow urine therapy. A lot of this comes out of India.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:52
I was gonna say I wonder if it has to do with like the prevalence of Hindu Hindu kind of, I don't know

Scott Benner 35:00
Hey, Dustin times in 2018 ran an article cow urine can cure diabetes. And a study conducted by Bangalore scientists show that cow's urine lowers blood glucose level and can cure diabetes. Now, first of all, again, not that I think that cow urine can cure diabetes, but they're obviously talking about type two, type two diabetes is a rampant issue in India. And oh, yeah, maybe more so than here honestly. reduces blood sugar levels study conducted by perfectely. Again, we don't know who any of these people are blah, blah, blah, and it's 2008. And I can't find another return for it. But that's not the point. Is it? The point is, is that an article from 2008? From what is, you know, I'm gonna say new source in in India, somehow made it to America, where a listener of this podcast was told drink cow urine, it will cure your diabetes.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:59
That's where and even if, like, Where were you? To get? How urine fraud like if you went to middle of New York City, right, come on. Honestly,

Scott Benner 36:12
Jennifer, you live in Wisconsin?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 36:15
I do. But I'm not gonna go knock. I mean, I live in an area of Wisconsin that does have dairy. Really close. I could go knock on my local farmer's door and be like, Yeah, can you just not let the cows pee in the area there because I'd like you to collect it in this bucket

Scott Benner 36:37
of UC Jenny with a five gallon bucket under a cow you told me right away 2018 India Times cow urine can protect heart heal diabetic wounds.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 36:47
You'd have to be behind the cow by the way.

Scott Benner 36:50
Is that where the penis is? Or do you want the doesn't matter if it comes from a boy or girl? cow doesn't say

Jennifer Smith, CDE 36:54
I know that's a really good question. I mean, a penis for for a bull would be under the cow, obviously. But for female cows, it actually comes out more the back end you actually have to be very, very careful.

Scott Benner 37:09
You're not wrong. Like it's not saying Bolus saying cow

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:12
specific thing. Cow. Yeah, so I

Scott Benner 37:15
need like a baby pool to get gathered up probably. That's good. So it's gonna have some cow poop in it. So just in case you're wondering. Yeah, I you know, I think I just take the diabetes.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:28
Correct. I mean, there are a couple that are a couple that I know that are coming up that I'd be like, I'll just, I'll just keep my diabetes. Yeah, well,

Scott Benner 37:36
here's a simple one cashier at the grocery store. And listen, who doesn't know medicine better than the cashier at your grocery store said, if I ate more oranges, I'd be cured. So I googled it. Because oranges have a low GI they trigger a slow rise in your blood sugar levels, making them more favorable for people with diabetes. That's the best return I can get about oranges.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:58
But that's not a cure, though. Where did the I mean really

Scott Benner 38:02
sets out people's minds jump.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:05
Like right and or maybe this person read something about the rind or the x the essential oil extract that you can actually get if you kind of scrape the outside of the the orange right to just get a little bit of that. I mean, there are unbelievable antioxidants in the skins and the appeals of all of our fruits there are but from a cure standpoint, this person read something that they you know, it's like the game of phone. Right? You say something to the kid next to you. And by the end of the line it's like entirely different. I eat

Scott Benner 38:43
an orange almost every day. Honestly. I think they're lovely. I are lovely use them for my if I have a sweet craving I haven't

Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:50
when I do the same Yeah, absolutely. cara cara are my favorite. Real like aren't like they're very, they're very orangey flavor. Yes,

Scott Benner 39:00
I hate to tell you but you get a beautiful bag of oranges at Costco for $9.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:04
You can and grapefruit recently the grapefruit are also there pink grapefruit are really good.

Scott Benner 39:09
I don't know if Costco are good people or not, but great. I buy my beef there too.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:15
That's okay. They don't have their orange trees behind. You know, Costco. So,

Scott Benner 39:18
Jenny, if I asked you if a prickly pear cactus could cure my diabetes, or yours or anybody's I don't have diabetes. That's a weird way for me to be speaking. Would you say that's crazy but WebMD tells me why do people take prickly pear cactus and people with type two diabetes supplements supplements made from one type of broiled prickly pear cactus them may look may lower blood sugar levels are early research shows that the supplements may lower blood sugar by 17 to 46% in some people, May and some what I just read was that ain't gonna work. But you know, like, it worked for somebody obviously because it made somebody say it out loud. Also, they're clearly talking about type two but yet correct here we are listening to the podcast was told, if I eat prickly pear cactus prickly pear cactus is oh, I should take them in pills. Because and this is a quote, it helped my sister in law's friend's uncle. Talking about your telephone game. My sister in law's friend's uncle. All right. I'm going to the next one.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:31
There's another one. I don't know if it's on. I don't know if it's on the list. We'll go down the list. And if it's not, I'll bring it up.

Scott Benner 40:39
Magnets.

Unknown Speaker 40:41
Oh, magnets.

Scott Benner 40:41
All I need is a ring with magnets. It could cure my diabetes. They don't think that's gonna work. Why do people want remember when everyone Brett Farve, you're from Wisconsin, you're gonna know this. Do you remember when Brett Farve?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:58
It depends. I follow nothing in professional he

Scott Benner 41:01
was Hawking magnetic bracelets, bracelets, yeah, for a while.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:07
And there is again, if you look at the science, there is some science to that that goes along with redirection of I mean, our bodies are electrical, that's probably not the right way to say it, somebody's probably going to be like Johnny doesn't know what she's talking about. Like, it's the reason that we can get a shock, right. And so if you redirect that normal, pulsing through our body with these magnets, it is the post to again, from whatever research that's been done. It's supposed to help realign the movement of things through your body. Again, not a cure. But people like, again, it's like the telephone game. It's almost like, well, if it's good for this, couldn't it be good for that? And then it's like, hey, it's good for this. And hey, you should try it because my neighbor's uncle's friend. It definitely works.

Scott Benner 42:02
Anyway. I google magnet secure diabetes, and you're right down a rabbit hole. Yeah, magnets will take away your neuropathy. burning pain and numbness will be 90% reduced. You know, and they use words like cohort to make it seem like it's a study. And it's not a study. It's a page. You know, but then you can see what you can see what people Google right. I don't know, if people understand when you Google something it gives you what mostly is asked, do magnets help neuropathy? Can magnets reverse my diabetes? How do I permanently use magnets to reverse my diabetes side effects of magnet therapy, this means that people like looked into this, like they heard it somewhere. And they went for it. By the way. diabetes in control.com, I don't know what that is. electric magnetic fields have been shown to reduce blood glucose and improve the body's response to insulin in genetically modified diabetic mice models. Well, again, if I could get you to be a mouse, then you'd be then all you'd have to do is live live in an electric, electromagnetic field your whole life, and I guess everything would be fine, altering the balance of oxidants and antioxidants in the liver, causing an improvement in the body's response to insulin. Okay, so you see, see where it comes from? You don't I mean, you,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 43:25
you do but again, you have to really, in all of this, you really have to know one, where did it come from to begin with? What's a really reputable source to look at for information and then you have to remember that if you use me, God, I am kind of if there was a really science based proof based cure, I, I hope that it would be that simple to just bring it out and be like, Look, we found this fruit that grows like, I don't on this plane someplace. And if you take it for the next seven days, your beta cells will regrow. And or if you eat it like once a week for the for the your life, you will keep your beta cells healthy and happy and restoring themselves, right.

Scott Benner 44:24
The way I like the way I like to think about any of this. I don't care about diabetes myths are anything if it really worked, you know, like I tell people all the time, they're like people jump online, and they'll be like, I saw this article about like, the cure, like is this real? And I'm like, you would know if it was real. It would be everywhere. There'd be sky writers. There'd be a town criers would be yelling. It's it's, you know, if you have to look for it. It hasn't happened yet. Right? Yeah. Okay, so can being a vegan or vegetarian cure my diabetes? No, no, a short or meet Jenny, forget those damn vegetables. I'm just gonna go keto it'll cure my diabetes, right? It will not know. It'll lower your need for insulin. Yes, yeah, absolutely. And that's where you see the thing, like, I've been told a few times that going vegan will get me off insulin. And there are I mean, you know, there's a lot of people who do that, like high carb or vegetable diet that, that have some success with that, right. But even like, there's wording here that I want to in this one statement, where did it go? It's the idea that if I, if I eat low carb, my diabetes will go away. And again, you can see the progression, like if you were eating higher carb and use this amount of insulin, and then your lower carb and you were using less, I see where people would say go away, but it correct. That's not the right use of those words is ends up being a problem. And then a person who knows that's true gets told this in a grocery store and they're like, hey, off. Like you can't cure my diabetes with meat. I was told by 23 month old needed to go on a celery juice cleanse, and he'd be healed. theorists claim that type one and type one and a half diabetes are autoimmune. That is the body's immune system attacking its pancreas. This is a quote they got from this person. Don't get caught up in this confusion. Like like so they were told by a person. You've been told this is how type one diabetes works. That's not even true. You just need a salary cleanse.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:41
You've been lied to. Essentially right. Rather?

Scott Benner 46:46
Yeah. God, I'm sorry.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:48
Oh, no, I was gonna say the, you know, the people who have the degrees. They have lied to you. And you don't need insulin. What you really just need is this easy vegetable to get. And that's it.

Scott Benner 47:00
Yeah. Oh, my janitor at work told me that if my kids ate pie there. Why did you laugh? janitors might know. So maybe this guy used to be a doctor? Let's find out. Hold on. Yes. Oh, they need to eat. I wasn't

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:13
laughing because of the janitor. I was waiting for what it was gonna say.

Scott Benner 47:18
Thank you. I was trying to be silly. If my kids just ate by their blood type, they'd be cured. The blood type diets?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:27
Yes. Have you read the book? I read it years ago?

Scott Benner 47:30
No, I don't read it. I find it laborious reading.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:36
I really I really like reading, especially if it's informative reading. And I also really like historical fiction.

Scott Benner 47:44
That later one day. Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:47
But in terms of that, eat, eat right for your blood type, I believe is the name of the book. And there might be more out there now. But that was the book I read years ago. It it looks at history of the human population. And it looks at it from the perspective that from tribe to tribe, we didn't have the intermingling of cultures, okay, let's say or nationalities that we have, in today's world, right? Tribes tended to stay within their own group, many of them were in certain areas of the world where they were more the gathering type. And meat might have been very limited in ability to get so their portion of it was very low through the course of the year. So they were doing a lot more of the plant based diet intake, whereas there were other people who lived in a place where meat was the prevalent, like, thing for them to take in. And yes, they got berries and grains and things occasionally, but not like this group would eat meat. So the idea is that blood types, right, A, B, A, B, and O all came from the idea that their food had relation to their blood type. And that as we find out what our blood type is, we are more likely to do well in terms of our overall health. If in fact we eat according to what that blood type dictated from food, or for the kind of food right like, Oh, I remember specifically oh and a mainly because my husband is oh and I am a his blood type is supposedly more of the meat protein base whereas I actually eat without knowing it. I started before even reading this book. A is much more like plant based. It's much more like vegetarian and that type of a diet idea. Now eating to your blood type is that going to cure your diabetes? Again, that's the end point here. But the idea in today's world of eating that way, we have such an intermingling of culture and where people came from and everything that at this point, my expectation with that mixing is this isn't as beneficial. As the book points to, that's my thought, yeah,

Scott Benner 50:36
probably probably hard to sell a book Jenny, if you say might and may on the cover. Now, here, luckily, you don't need the blood type thing because you can just eat a cup full of blueberries. A well meaning person told me insisted, in fact, that if I just ate a cup of fresh blueberries, it would cure my diabetes. Many weeks later, months later, this person saw my father and apologized and said she was sorry, but she had been wrong about that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:11
I'm laughing because do you know how long I've been eating blueberries? Where is my darn cuer? Where where is it? I really well.

Scott Benner 51:23
She didn't have a lawyer making the book cover for us. So she didn't say may cure your diabetes. She said definitely will. definitely will. My daughter was first diagnosed and for someone who never talks to me message me to tell me that her plant based diet would just help it work it all out. Yeah. Geez. And then then the woman says My daughter is on a plant based diet, even in the womb, because that's what I'm doing. And that person didn't believe her. What else do we have here? Tell me. Oh, a friend told me that I'm quote going through too much to control my daughter's diabetes. I just I should just look into different holistic options. And then she sent her a tick tock about mangoes and how they'll cure diabetes. I eat mangoes. I don't have diabetes, so Oh. Well, it might. Jennifer. I don't think so.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:20
Yeah. Yeah. I've had the occasional mango. I haven't seen any. Any movement towards curing my diabetes. Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner 52:32
Okay, hold on a second. I live in a very small rural town. My son has type one for years, we help locals with different things. An older woman who is very well respected in my community had recently lost her husband, and she was in need of help my son who was 14 at the time, and I both went over to help her clean out her horse stalls and help her with some paperwork. While my son did the yard work. She proceeded to tell me this very elaborate story about how the world is living in 3d. And we're about to move to five d, at which point this woman says I decided we had done enough and I needed to go while she was thanking us and we were leaving, she explained that I needed to sit my son down in yellow light daily to cure his diabetes, that I needed to get multiple yellow light bulbs and place him in the center of the room and shine the yellow light on him at least 20 minutes a day.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 53:30
I think this is I go really come on. Like I think this is one of the most absurd that I have heard. I think this even beats the cow hearin cabal think it does these

Scott Benner 53:43
minutes. Jenny, why are you not doing it? We've been talking for 45 minutes, you could have had yellow light on you the whole time.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 53:50
I could have and man I would be cured. I could

Scott Benner 53:53
just the next time we record you're into like a tank top and there's like yellow glowing around you. I'm

Jennifer Smith, CDE 53:58
gonna be like, okay, like I'm trying. It's got I'm trying.

Scott Benner 54:02
I'm gonna sound like a douche bag for a second here. I don't mind. Everyone should be questioning who they're listening to for everything. Not just this because lovely woman I'm sure but if she thinks this, imagine, imagine what else like like where you're putting your I don't know your your 401 K like, have you checked into what that guy thinks? Like, you gotta ask everybody some questions. I would now ask everybody. Do you think there's a way to cure diabetes before I let them do anything with me? My favorite piece of unsolicited advice. If I would only perform Reiki on my son's feet. I wouldn't need to inject him with insulin anymore. Yeah. my eight year old son was diagnosed a friend told me that certain diet together with daily here it is I know Jenny's waiting for this. daily coffee enemas would cure his diabetes.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:55
Yeah, this is the one that made me like not have any words at all. But, and this was this was advice to a parent right? Who would had a kid

Scott Benner 55:05
right? I'm pretty sure I think if you squirt coffee up your eight year old has asked the cops are coming for you just

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:12
like that kid is definitely going to go to school and be like, I feel so good and they shouldn't be like, Oh, I'm so sorry Do you see didn't need to see the nursing kids give me like Don't send me my mom or dad is doing this right?

Scott Benner 55:25
Can I talk to you privately for a minute after English class? I don't know what to do. My mom and dad are putting a tube in my butt and squirting coffee in me. I need Hey, yeah, I think that's not right. You know what I'm going to come out strong on this one Jenny and say you should not be giving your eight year olds coffee enemas.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:43
They shouldn't be getting coffee to begin with. I'll put that out

Scott Benner 55:47
I don't want to go down a rabbit hole but I don't know why any of you are letting your kids drink coffee. I think that's silly. A number of things that can cure it foods drinking out of steel cup will cure it. Oh. Oh well Jenny used to steal a cup every day. Again. You're doing it wrong.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 56:01
Maybe I'm supposed to eat the cup or Likud?

Scott Benner 56:04
What if you so didn't okra and then had a cow piss in it? And then I put it up your ass? Oh my god. Behind the curtain, I don't need to look.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 56:22
Oh my god. Seriously, at that point. Like hop Shana, for what are you doing?

Scott Benner 56:30
You have CACs as the cows and a butthole. We are very close to securing you. Oh, maybe

Jennifer Smith, CDE 56:35
we should mix in the cactus to that.

Scott Benner 56:37
I mean, not the percolate. Frankly, part helps I counted the tablets. Yeah, we'll definitely get those and they will probably just we could dilute it in the urine. You know what this ends up ruining? How about my daughter takes a supplement called a VAs at all that significantly helps balance her hormonal issues. Right. And when people hear that forget people me when someone told me that at first I went, Oh, I gotta check this lady's underarms to see if she shaves before. I know if this is a good thing to do or not. But it's because of all this like this lady. This last lady says it's exhausting to hear this from people all the times. And it makes listen, I think I'm a common sense person. But I hear enough things like this. I go everybody's out of their mind. And then somebody comes along and says something that was actually valuable. And I almost ignored it because I thought What is this hocus pocus? Right? Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:31
yes, absolutely. I think that brings up one I said I was going to kind of mention along the line. This is it's not essentially a myth in terms of a cure. But it has actually shown some benefit in terms of glucose levels. And in terms of like insulin sensitization and that kind of stuff. It's called bitter melon. It's a traditional Chinese vegetable. And there are like supplements and whatnot that you can take as well. But it's heavily used in Chinese medicine, almost like some of the oral meds that are used in regular like westernized medicine. So again, not a cure, but it is something that does have like the Avasta tall, there is some value to it. If you look at it, with the right light, I say I'm gonna use this for this benefit I get

Scott Benner 58:25
I want to point out to I'm not one of those people who's like Western medicine. That's it like I'm, you know, I'm a person who alleviate a lot of my back pain through just positive thinking and, you know, doctors Dr. Sardos book, so I'm not like I'm not like a it's got to be in a pill and Pharma has to make it or I'm not taking it. I don't have that feeling at all. As a matter of fact, if you know, you smoke weed and it makes your life better, like go get it, you know what I mean? Right? I'm all good as cashier told me if my son just ate an alkaline diet, his diabetes would get better. If I just got these special pills from India, he won't need his needles anymore. And I can't believe this. This is a long one. I'm going to capsulize it. I can't believe I didn't see this the first time. An older gentleman in line ahead of me at the pharmacy told me has typed that I had the good type of diabetes. He had the worst kind. He was type two I was type one but then he said that don't worry because you can easily cure type one diabetes by drinking camel urine. I didn't see this in here because it's buried in such a long thing. And I like I like these conversations. I don't like to be overly prepared. So this is another one.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 59:36
The camel urine I wonder if again this man clearly listened down a line of fake

Scott Benner 59:42
telephone number cow.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 59:44
He couldn't remember cow but there there is again, similar to better bitter melon. There is some research into camel milk, okay. And the effects on like blood glucose regulation and whatnot. Again, not a cure. They weren't looking at it looking at it in research record. Need to cure, but they were looking at it in terms of what would it yield in terms of glucose regulation, decreasing insulin resistance, improving even lipid profiles from the research. So, again, where are we going to get camel milk from? But I think this is a direct that guy said camel milk Maybe he meant or he said camel urine Maybe he meant cow's urine. Maybe he meant camel milk me commingled them and he brought them together.

Scott Benner 1:00:29
I've just scrolled past a ton of people said, you have to do this homeopathically my son's karate teacher told me I shouldn't be giving my son insulin. I mean, you're not listening to your k. If you're not listening to your karate teacher about medicine, I don't know what you're doing. I would go to support groups to type ones for type one parents. And a mom said I don't believe in giving my kid drugs of any kind. We're just going to manage her diabetes with food, exercise, herbal remedies instead of insulin. And they said we said Oh, keep us posted. Let us know how that goes. And she says I hope someone intervened. A friend just told me her 15 year olds nephew type one was going into remission because they had prayed very hard. They laid hands on him at church. She said her doctor is the one who told them that it's in remission. And your kid had a honeymoon? That's terrible. That made me sad. Okay. Let's get back to pee in your butt. That's more that's more fun to talk about. That's more fun. Yes, is my fault. My daughter hasn't been cured yet. Because I gave her injections of insulin. It's my fault that her pancreas stopped producing insulin, because I gave her the insulin. Oh, no. Yeah, I should have given her no carbs or sugar and no insulin, and she would have healed herself by now.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:01:57
Oh, and there's there's somebody who hasn't been from the beginning, given the right information along with the diagnosis of type one means this right? You will not heal dead beta cells. Could you with low carb initially lean off of a heavy impact or a heavy request of those beta cells to continue to help? Sure. But eventually because it's an autoimmune based issue, the betas are going to continue to decline.

Scott Benner 1:02:33
For insulin, if you got type one diabetes, they starved you to keep you alive. They don't that was a keto diet. Yeah, high exercise, high water, no food, no carbs. And they sometimes get people live for a couple of years. That way.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:02:46
It was pretty much fat and very little protein. Yes. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:02:51
I have two more here. And this is going to lead into a tiny bit of a conversation. Can drinking apple cider vinegar, cure my diabetes or help with my diabetes? I want to say that recently I had someone on the podcast, who yes, people might know is glucose goddess. It's yeah, Jesse. And she she goes by that moniker. She writes some books. And I had her on because so many people are like, Hey, I follow this girl on Instagram. And I know I earlier I was like Instagram. But But and she really helps me. So what I learned in the course of talking to her is what she was talking about is just something that we always talk about is eating your food in a certain order to help the digestion process and help your body's not pick up the glucose is yes, drastically. And I cannot tell you how many people have gotten back to me and said, Hey, I did the stuff she said about eating in a certain order. And it's really making a difference in my Instagram, please. Yeah, yeah. So her hacks are.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:03:52
I know, I don't know her personally, but I know her. Her teachings well, and I listened to the episode it was quite, quite good. And even even her information about the apple cider vinegar is very informative as to why we would expect it to assist in some way. Right, though, the way that it works on a gut level and impacts the way that your body digests and absorbs carbohydrates from a slowing nature. There's even a muscular based response to the apple cider vinegar intake. I think she did a really lovely job of explaining, especially not being a person with diabetes herself, only understanding it from her health reasons for looking further into how to eat the way that she encourages. She was

Scott Benner 1:04:44
a little nervous when I asked her to come on the show. Because really, yeah, because she's like, people are gonna think I'm saying like, you can cure diabetes. And I'm not saying that she goes but it always gets confused and people say, you know, and she said plus I at one time doing this research she were a CGM, and You didn't want to get that. Like, you know, sometimes you'll take some crap for wearing a CGM if you don't have diabetes online because again, right? Here's a myth. If someone doesn't have diabetes, and is I don't know, given a CGM by a doctor or can afford to buy it in cash or whatever they do. That doesn't take CGM from you. No, no, it doesn't. Dexcom would be thrilled to make more of them. They they're not and sell more of them, then. That's always that's a myth around diabetes. My good health doesn't stop you from having good health. And it just, and I've heard the argument, well, I can't afford it. That's a different argument. Like Like, right, like, yeah, affordability is different. But just because one person got one doesn't mean another person doesn't get one. That's a scarce, that's a scarcity mentality.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:47
Correct. And that, while in the past couple of years, we have had issues with backorder. And we have had issues with supply chain and that kind of stuff. At this point, unless you really get a notification about supplies being like a week behind or whatnot, you should not be able, you should not have the issue of getting supplies just because somebody without diabetes is buying it out of pocket themselves. Yes, you

Scott Benner 1:06:10
should trust that in a capitalistic society if a company is making something and people want to buy it, and then they run out of it. They will make extra more Yeah, because it listen the same thing. I mean, now Jenny, you know, like I'm almost 11 weeks into week Ovie I have lost 21 and a half pounds, I think. I don't think it's a stretch to say I almost looked like a different person sitting in front of you. It's been really amazing for me. But there was that like whole like though there's an ozempic shortage and these people using this for weight loss or stop and type twos from getting it. That did happen for a second. Like for a second Novo Nordisk was like, we didn't make enough of this. And but they don't go home and cry, and then watch Murder She Wrote, they open up new factories and new process and they're like, hey, ching, baby. They sit out there and they start making more. And so it's almost necessary. You know, like, be happy. It's helping people. There'll be a little ebb and flow in there. And then it comes right back again. Same thing with that. People might wonder why I didn't include. There's a cure, and it's being hidden from you in this episode, but that's because I think that's going to be its own episode.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:07:27
Episode. Okay. I feel like Gosh, that'll be an interesting discussion. Oh, we're

Scott Benner 1:07:31
gonna talk about aliens and Bigfoot and all kinds of stuff in that one. So, fabulous. Thank you for doing this, of course.

All righty Roo. Thanks to Jenny integrated diabetes.com. If you're looking for Jenny, thanks to all of the listeners who sent in their stories of what they were told would cure their diabetes or their loved ones diabetes. And I know you're thinking Scott, you didn't mention cinnamon? Don't worry, it's coming. Let's thank Dexcom of course Dexcom makes the G six and G seven continuous glucose monitoring systems, and you can learn more about them and get started today. doing yourself a great favor and supporting the podcast by using my link dexcom.com forward slash juice box and get yourself an omni pod dash or Omni pod five at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. Hey, if you're looking for a big group of people who don't think that flying saucers who are being flown by monkeys can cure your lumbago check out the Facebook group that I started for the podcast. It's a private group with 40,000 active members Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook, absolutely free, great place to meet great people. We're just kind of lurk around, see what's going on. Listen to the conversations or maybe just learn how people are handling their type one type two gestational pregnancy with diabetes, and so much more Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. The term snake oil is used to describe any worthless pseudo medical remedy promoted as a cure for various illnesses. By extension snake oil salesmen are charlatans who sell such fraudulent goods. In 19th century America, snake oil was commonly promoted as a cure all and that's where the phrase comes from. Sales of a legend rattlesnake oil continued into the 20th century. In 1915, the US government ordered the analysis of a well known product, Clark Stanley's snake oil Lindemann. The analysis found that this snake oil was really a light mineral oil or a petroleum product mixed with about 1% of fatty oil that they believe may have been beef fat, capsicum, and possibly a trace of camphor and turpentine. Since the product untainted, no snake derived oil. Stanley was taken to court found guilty of misbranding and misrepresenting the product, he was fined $20, the equivalent of about $430 In today's world, but I'm gonna say at least he didn't ask you to put that in your butt. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#931 On The Tarmac

Dana is the mother of a type 1 and an adult who was diagnosed at age 14. We discuss diabetes through the years from her perspective.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 931 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast, I'm speaking with Dana, she's had type one diabetes for her entire life, and her daughter has type one as well. Today we're going to talk about diabetes through the years, and find out more about Amy's story. While you're listening, 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 are becoming bold with insulin. If you like comfort and you like quality, you're going to love cozy earth.com. use the offer code juice box at checkout. To save 35% off your entire order. Go to athletic greens.com forward slash juice box. And when you make your first order for ag one from athletic greens, you'll get five free travel packs, and a year supply of vitamin D. And of course, get 10% off your first month of online therapy@betterhelp.com forward slash juice box just go to my link, sign up and get 10% off your first month.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter, contour next.com forward slash juicebox. The contour next gen and the entire line of contour products are highly accurate, incredibly made easy to use. And they have a beautiful bright light for that nighttime finger checking. And second chance test trips. That's right. Second Chance test trips, we could all use a second chance contour next one.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored today. By Who do you think who us med get your diabetes supplies the same way Arden does at US med go to us med.com forward slash juicebox. To get started today, all you need to do is get that free insurance check. Make sure you're covered. And then boom, bang, bang. You're getting your stuff just like garden at us. med.com forward slash juice box now, if you don't like the internet, you don't want to go to us med.com forward slash juice box. I respect that. Maybe you want a phone call, right? Like to be on the phone talk to a person. That's your vibe, no problem 888-721-1514 There are links in the show notes of the audio player you're listening in right now. And at juicebox podcast.com. To contour us Med and all the sponsors. You are listening in on audio app onto like Spotify or Apple podcast, Amazon Music something like that. Please tell me your if you are following subscribe and that app and if you're not go get yourself a sweet audio Apple listen to the podcast.

Dana 3:15
Hi, my name is Dana. And I've had type one since I was 14. So that was in 1974. So do you want to do the math? Or should I just tell you Oh, hold

Scott Benner 3:30
on a second. Let's not let's just figure it out. First of all, it's 74. I was three years old. And I'm 51 now so that was 14. So that was 48 years of being a babysitter. We're off to a bad start on feeling good about ourselves later. But but that makes that like 48 years ago, right? Yeah. And how old were you when you were diagnosed?

Dana 3:51
14.

Scott Benner 3:52
Okay, so you're 62 now? Yep. I don't even use my fingers. Feeling good. If I could pronounce water. I'd be all set. But I'm only halfway there. So. Wow. So you were diagnosed in? Hmm, where's my little pen? Here? This. I have to make notes myself. Sorry. 7070. Ford, 14 years old. You were using? You were using animal insulin right? Yes. Okay.

Dana 4:25
pork and beef,

Scott Benner 4:26
pork and beef, which sounds nicer when it's on a Chinese menu than it does when you're injecting it I imagined but what was that like? Exactly?

Dana 4:36
Ah, well, I really remember getting diagnosed. Before I got diagnosed, you know getting up in the middle of the night drinking. We have this huge water bottle in the refrigerator and like getting up and drinking the whole thing and having to get up in the middle of the night and pee. My parents knew something was wrong. They didn't know what took me to the doctor. And then I think I was in the hospital for a few days, and my whole family had to come and learn about diabetes and what to expect. And I remember them, making me run up and down the stairs in the hospital to figure out how much insulin I needed. And

Scott Benner 5:22
oh, that's interesting. The running up and down the stairs was part of the diagnostic.

Dana 5:27
Yeah, yeah, it was doctor could figure out my dosage. But I only took one shot a day, back then was in the morning. And then was you know, your you go it? Was it

Scott Benner 5:43
just and you? Did you eat any specific way?

Dana 5:47
Yes, you had the you I was given the exchange list diet, right? I don't know if you're familiar with that. Probably.

Scott Benner 5:54
I am Jenny. Jenny did the exchange at the beginning of her life. So they gave you like, it's basically like options, right? You can kind of move them around from meal to meal as long as you don't use too many of them.

Dana 6:05
Yeah, every meal. You had so many bread and fruit and meat and and you had to try to eat the same amount at the same time every day.

Scott Benner 6:20
Fontana? Yeah. By the way, I think young people listening are just amazed that there was electricity in 1974. For you to have a refrigerator, don't you think?

Dana 6:30
I know so many things, you know, that you take for granted? Now? It's like, no cell phones back then, you know. And I had so many episodes of low blood sugar. You know, because there was no meters, right? So I had several times where I woke up in the hospital. Because my parents, I had seizures, like I listened to your episode with Arden having a seizure. And I don't remember much about them except for waking up in the hospital. And then giving me orange juice and me throwing it up. And I didn't like orange juice for years. I couldn't drink it, because I just associated it with

Scott Benner 7:17
that horrible feeling. Yeah. Hey, question about that, if you remember, where you like, upright and moving. And then the next thing you knew you were in the hospital or do these more happen overnight.

Dana 7:28
Overnight, only once, when I was first diagnosed, and I didn't know what it felt like to be low. I don't remember them ever explaining the worry about that. And I was at my grandparents house, I was eating, believe it or not pickles. And then I woke up in the hospital. And that was the only time where it's happened when I've been Awake,

Scott Benner 7:51
awake. So you didn't know you were low, but you were hungry, which now you know, is a symptom of being low. And but and so you're eating pickles, which has no carbs in it. So that wasn't,

Dana 8:02
that wasn't gonna happen at all. But you know,

Scott Benner 8:05
how many times do you think this happened where your parents woke up in the middle of the night went? Dana's having a seizure again, let's go. But how often do you think that happened to?

Dana 8:12
I think it only happened three times.

Scott Benner 8:15
And then they made adjustments or you figured, you know,

Dana 8:19
yeah, I made adjustments, which was a bad path to get on. Because then I always overeat. Because I was afraid.

Scott Benner 8:27
Oh, so your adjustments weren't exactly like thoughtful adjustments. Oh, no, they were.

Dana 8:34
It was kind of like, you weren't allowed to change your dose that you were taking, which seems really stupid to me now. It's like, but it didn't even occur to me then. So the only thing I thought I could do

Scott Benner 8:48
was eat more rice. Yeah, just make sure I ate something

Dana 8:51
before I went to bed that had sugar in it, you know, so I probably ran high. Most nights after that, but I didn't wake up in the hospital.

Scott Benner 9:04
Well, I mean, when the technology was as it was, I mean, you're just doing the best you can, right? Like you're just I mean, listen, we my mom had an illness recently she had cancer was really terrible. And there's no doubt in my mind that if she had that cancer in 1974, she would have died. And that's because that was their understanding of it back then. And this was their understanding of diabetes and 74 Is it is it is that bizarre to you to see what it's like now?

Dana 9:35
Oh, no, it's actually bizarre to think what it was like then I feel like it was like the you know, primitive days. Yeah. It's, it's amazing to see how far we've come. I'm really thankful for that.

Scott Benner 9:52
What are the what are the timeline leaps that stick out in your mind? Like from animal like, what's the next thing that you think of?

Dana 10:00
I'm seeing I remember at one the reason I remember it was at one is because I went on a trip with my brother to Austria. And I was able to take test strips to poke my finger and then you put blood on the strip and you compare it to the bottle. But at least it gave you an idea of where you were. And at that point, I would sometimes take a little more insulin and like if I was in the high zone,

Scott Benner 10:39
yeah. How old were you then? For that Austria trip?

Dana 10:44

Scott Benner 10:45
that's seven years after your diagnosis. Yeah. And so that's the next leap. You remember his test strips?

Dana 10:53
Yeah, test strips, and then getting the glucose monitor machine. That was probably not too long after that. Probably two years after that, you know, positive, but I remember that. It was huge. And you had to wait. Two minutes? No, I think you had to wait five minutes with the first one. And then you had to wait two minutes. And now it's five seconds. You know, so

Scott Benner 11:27
people still complain. Sting takes forever? Yeah, I love it. Well,

Dana 11:33
you know, if you only knew waiting five minutes was really inconvenient. So at

Scott Benner 11:38
that point, is it still just the idea of I'm trying not to pass out? You're not thinking about long term health, right?

Dana 11:49
Yeah, no. I mean, I knew that it wasn't good to be too high. So it was mostly like feeling like you're on a tight rope. And you're trying not to fall off either end? Yeah. You know, like, but I always kind of had the mantra that are too high and too low right. Now, because I couldn't function if I was too low,

Scott Benner 12:16
right. Is there something behind you making noise that you can hear?

Dana 12:19
You know what it is? It's an airplane outside. Is it my windows are shut?

Scott Benner 12:25
Well, that's okay. Where is it? circling your house? It's been there forever. Oh, can you yell out and say please go?

Dana 12:32
Yeah. Oh, I wish they would.

Scott Benner 12:36
Do you live near an airport?

Dana 12:38
Yeah, I live near a small airport that didn't have a lot of traffic. Until recently Santa Santa Monica airport. I I'm not sure if they closed or wet, but a lot of their air traffic now comes to Torrance. Well, no, I'm telling you where I live.

Scott Benner 12:56
No one go kill Dana. Okay, they're good. And I took care of it.

Dana 13:01
I'll never find me. There's lots of dangerous here so

Speaker 1 13:04
you'll never find me. If the animal insulin didn't kill, or you're not getting to her, what do you think of that? Okay, so when we hear that noise behind you, it's a it's a takeoff or landing. Okay, nothing we can do about that. No big deal. Okay. Okay, so I had a question. It was

Scott Benner 13:25
my question is, why aren't you getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med us med.com forward slash juice box. That's where you get your free benefits check unless you prefer the phone. And then you would of course get it at 888-721-1514 That's a special number she has for Juicebox Podcast listeners. Arden is currently getting her Dexcom G sevens from us Med and her Omni pod dashes you could too. You could also get Omnipod five Dexcom G six libre three. Tandem control like you. I think you get that? Yeah, trust me. They got the stuff, call them up and see what they have. Here's what US mess is gonna give you 90 days worth of supplies, and fast and free shipping. They carry everything like I just said from insulin pumps, diabetes testing supplies, the latest CGM freestyle and Dexcom. They accept Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers. US med has an A plus rating with a better business bureau and a dedicated 888 number just for you. 88872115 Or of course do it online us med.com forward slash juice box. US Matt has served over 1 million customers who have diabetes since 1996. They want to give you better service and better care. And to be perfectly honest, I love their reordering system. The other day, an email comes, Hey, your supplies are ready to be shipped. Do you want them you just click a button right in the email if you want it's bang just like that it shows up at your door. US med even lets me call up and say, Hey, I see you're getting ready to send out. Dexcom right. But Arden's at college, could you send them to her college address instead? Yep, no problem. And they show up at college. Us med.com. Forward slash juicebox are 887211514. Who else is on the docket today? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the contour next gen blood glucose meter, a couple of things you need to know. First off, did you know it is possible that your meter, the one you have now is not all that accurate? It's true, could be true. Contour, they make an accurate meter right now aren't using the next one. But the next gen, I have it in a box, it's all ready to go. And we're gonna whip that out and give it a looky loo pretty soon. Whether you want the next gen or the next one, what you want is accuracy. You want ease of use a bright light for nighttime viewing a screen that is easy to read. And of course, Second Chance test strips. Sometimes you touch a little blood, you don't get quite enough for your handshakes or something, you know what happens. And then owe me error error. You don't want to errors, thrown away test trips, get those Second Chance test trips from contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. While you're there, you can even buy the meter online, it's possible that the meter might be cheaper in cash and you're paying now for the meter you have through your insurance company, I don't know maybe. But quality, quality is what you want, you want ease of use, you want a bright light, a clear screen, and accurate results above all else. And you're gonna get that from the Contour. Next One and the Contour Next One contour next.com Ford slash juicebox links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. Use the same meter that my daughter does the same meter I sent to my brother, the same meter my neighbor's using for his type two diabetes that easy.

We were talking about long term health. So you're still it's more about in the moment. But my next my follow up. question was, did anyone say it to you? Like were you told you're not going to live as long? Or like, Did you get any of that?

Dana 17:38
Yeah, I did. When I was first in the hospital, no one told me that. But I remember, like they gave my parents all these pamphlets three. And one of them had a thing about life expects to expectancy being 30 years from diagnosis. Okay. And I remember seeing that. And so it was kind of in the back of my mind. And when I reached that age, I felt like, you know, I beat it. I'm still here, you know?

Scott Benner 18:16
Did it change the way you lived your life? Do you think?

Dana 18:21
No, no, I, I always tried to do the best that I could to take care of myself. I think. And once I had kids, it really motivated me.

Scott Benner 18:36
Are you carefree? As a as a young person? Were you sollen? Like the did you have an overall? Like, was there a vibe about you that you were aware of?

Dana 18:46
Um yeah, I probably was pretty serious. Um, and I think having diabetes kept me from trying things like partying and drinking and smoking and stuff that a lot of my friends did, because I took that stuff seriously that I read, like, if you're, if you're smoking and you have diabetes, and then stop, you know, it's like, I always felt like, listen, it's hard enough to juggle all this. I'm not going to add more to it. unknowns to it and try to figure those out. So

Scott Benner 19:27
okay, that's interesting. So, you know, it's just striking me then I have to tell you, I interviewed somebody yesterday, who was 24. And they had such a, an older voice, and you're 62 and you sound like you're 17 Oh, so interesting.

Dana 19:42
Oh, I like that.

Scott Benner 19:45
Well, listen, everybody would like that. That's lovely. Okay, so So we're, we're in our 20s You did you go to college? I did. Okay, you graduated?

Dana 19:56
I did. I Oh, I went to community college and lived at home and graduated from there, then went to a university for a year. But had it had had an on again off again boyfriend and we finally got serious at the end of that year and so I didn't finish. We got married and then I went back to college a couple years later.

Scott Benner 20:27
Do you have a baby in between there? No, no, that why did you okay, this is an interesting time capsule. What about getting married major stuff going to college? So did you feel like Oh, I gotta go clean something

Dana 20:39
else. It was too far away. Oh, okay. I was going to college in Santa Barbara. And I well, I live in Torrance, you don't know that. It was a couple hours away. So we just I finished that year. We got married the following fall. I got it. I got two jobs and worked for a while and then wanted to go back and get my BA and

Scott Benner 21:09
this ended up being a lifelong coupling of the two

Dana 21:11
of you. Yeah, it'll be 40 years in November.

Scott Benner 21:15
I'm so glad because I thought the next thing you were gonna say was an after I got done paying for his grad school he left. Okay, good. Excellent. That's lovely. Yeah, good data, which is what? Unlikely?

Dana 21:31
Well, you know, it's, it's surprising to me, because so many of my friends aren't, you know, okay. That mean right at the same time. So I feel like we're rare.

Scott Benner 21:45
I feel, Dana, I feel like that you have to have obstinance to stay married for a very long time. Like, you almost have to defy what it is to be in a relationship. You're like, I don't care what this feels like, I'm not leaving.

Dana 22:02
It's a commitment. And you have to decide like, Okay, we gotta try different things that this is not working because I made this commitment. And I'm not gonna back out.

Scott Benner 22:14
I think of it like getting, I think of it like being lost in the mountains. And you climb over one mountain thinking, Well, when I get over this mountain, I'm gonna see the town. And then you get to the top and you're like, Oh, it's another mountain over there. Alright, well, I'm not gonna stop now. And one day, one day, I feel like I'm going to crest that hill. And there's going to be a town there. Nobody like I did it. But I think that while I'm climbing the mountain, my wife is throwing sticks and stones at me from the weeds trying to kill me with little like paper cuts. You know what they call that a death by 1000 cuts? Like, I think she just he doesn't want to see me go quickly. Because I've said to her before, Dana, why don't you just smother me with a pillow? Wouldn't that be fast? Right? But no, she she acts like she doesn't know what I'm talking about. Oh, what do you mean? Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Anyway, all right. So you guys, you guys fought through it. You had kids? You said how many did you have?

Dana 23:09
Yes. So I have three biological kids. And then we have one foster daughter who is now our daughter.

Scott Benner 23:18
No, that's lovely. I thought you're gonna say a kid that we stole from the mall. So this was a much better story. What made you foster a child? That's lovely.

Dana 23:26
Um, my daughter had a friend in high school whose family kind of disintegrated. She needed somewhere to go. We never planned on being foster parents. But it was a way that she didn't have to leave for school and her friends and it just we could do it and, and my daughter talked us into it. So and I've never regretted it.

Scott Benner 23:56
I was gonna say throw in something positive after saying you were tucked into it.

Dana 24:00
Well, it was. It was just so unexpected. I never expected to do that.

Unknown Speaker 24:06
But what age was she when this happened?

Dana 24:09
She was 16.

Scott Benner 24:10
Okay.

Dana 24:12
And now she is 34 Look at that.

Scott Benner 24:16
You've done a nice thing. It's wonderful. And you built your family out and it had an experience you definitely didn't think you were gonna have Yeah, well, I'm glad it worked out and she ended up being like a crackhead. Because then the story would be much different. Like, it was horrible. Scott biggest this is just a horrible mistake. She Yeah, she stole her television. So this is a much better story. That's wonderful. Does she call your mom?

Dana 24:40
Yeah, sometimes. She She sometimes calls me mom sometimes calls me by my first name. Well, Dana. And same with my husband, but but she's still you know, she sends us Mother's Day Father's Day cards and celebrates Christmas with us and that's wonderful. Other holidays.

Scott Benner 25:00
So good for you that and good for her to that she's lucky to have met you guys and your daughter who didn't have the knowledge of the of life yet to not say that to you. She's just like, it'll be, I guess your daughter was like, this is a nice thing to do. We should do this, right?

Dana 25:16
Yeah, it was, it was really listen, mom, mom and dad, I just really want to help her.

Scott Benner 25:24
She called her to get a job, you should have been like, Listen, if it means that much to you. Let's see your work a little bit. Right? I'm just kidding. Yeah. What was it like to have a person come into your home after all those years? And did? And I guess I was going to ask you if you showed her the diabetes, but I guess my bigger question should be, how much of diabetes? Was your family aware of? And how much did you keep to yourself?

Dana 25:49
Um, they were aware. But I really did it on my own. I mean, like, I would take, you know, a shot of insulin before eating and, and it would be out in the open and, you know, I take insulin to the restaurant or whatever. So they were aware, and my kids knew. You know, if I started acting weird, to tell me to go check my blood sugar.

Scott Benner 26:24
That's about the extent of it. Was that preferred by you? Was it lonely? Like, why is that wire? I mean, I don't have diabetes. So I'm always wondering this, like, why? Or why is the wrong word? Come on, Scott, pull it together? Is it not a consideration to try to involve other people? Or is it something you're trying to protect them from?

Dana 26:50
Yeah, it's a good question. Because I know, it's been really interesting to me to listen to the podcasts and to listen to how you are with Arden. And, you know, part of me is envious, like, Man, I wish I would have had parents like that. And maybe it was the age that I was diagnosed. Because pretty much it was me on my own doing it all. I mean, how much have learned how to give me a shot? And but they never really did?

Scott Benner 27:28
You know, maybe it would have been nice if once in a while, they're like, hey, I'll do this for it. You don't have to name a logo go on. They had to fish. Yeah, they had to do something. Well, I, you know, it's funny, you just said that I'm more involved. And you. It's easy to feel like, Oh, I wish that happened for me. But with the way management was when you were diagnosed, being involved, just meant making sure you took a shot and then taking you to the hospital if you had a seizure, because they didn't know any, like there was not like there was other instructions for them except for the eating process. And then and then probably the sadness of thinking their daughter was going to be dead in 30 years. Yeah,

Dana 28:07
yeah. I do remember one conversation with my dad because he had a friend with a daughter with type one. And my dad came to me almost in tears, because he saw that I wasn't following the eating plan very well, and said, you know, this is what happened to my friend's daughter, and she's blind now. And I don't want that to happen to you. And it really had an impact because my dad was not someone who expressed emotions very often. So

Scott Benner 28:39
shocked shocking to see a man back then. Be that vulnerable with you, I guess.

Dana 28:44
Yeah. Yeah. Especially him.

Scott Benner 28:47
Okay. Just out of out of character for him completely. Right. Right. Exactly. All right. Okay, so married back to school, when at what age you start having children

Dana 29:02
27.

Scott Benner 29:04
That's a respectable age. I like that age as a choice.

Dana 29:07
So we had five years almost before we had kids.

Scott Benner 29:10
So you enjoyed your life for five years? You're saying?

Dana 29:14
Yeah. It's so weird. It's like, Well, why don't you remember what it was like before we had kids? Seems like we always had kids, you know, your life totally completely changes. Once you have kids. It becomes all about them. And

Scott Benner 29:30
I'm going to tell you a secret, Dana.

Dana 29:32
Take better care of myself having kids. Yeah, I'm

Scott Benner 29:34
gonna ask you about that in just a second. I'm just going to tell you first that Kelly's away for business this week. And she's in a different time zone. So we're really just not talking at all. Like there's this like slice of a moment where we can talk in the morning here when it's the evening where she is. And so she's pretty gone out of my life for the next number of days. Hold on. I'm dropping thanks. And gardens Wait school and coals here. And last night I went to bed and cold. I've been hanging out and doing more stuff because it's easier with only two people here. But I got in bed last night I closed my eyes. And I thought this would be what it would be like if I was alone. And then I started thinking about like, how would I feel my time? And like, I couldn't think of anything. I was like, well, I'll keep making the podcast. That's good. But then to what end? Do I like go on vacations? Do I go see places? Like, what do I do if I'm by myself one day, and it was a very strange feeling. And now if you ask me, anything about us as a family, or the kids or anything, I have a million ideas what we should do if we're all together, but I don't, I wouldn't know how to live my life by myself. It would be a quite an adjustment. So anyway, I take your point.

Dana 30:55
It's Yeah, it's true. I am. In fact, I think that's, you gotta find things that you enjoy doing separate from your spouse in order to keep your marriage healthy.

Scott Benner 31:09
Just teasing each other count. No, right. Yeah. Yeah, it's not even it's not even so much. I guess it's kind of a morbid thought. Like, because I was really thinking, like, what if Kelly was dead? And the kids were adults? Like, who am I? Exactly? You know what I mean, if the kids don't need me, and Kelly was just not here. Like, I don't know who I am, like, I don't know what to do. And I also thought, Oh, I wonder if I'll outlive her. If she'll outlive me, then I got competitive in my head. And I was like, I'm gonna outlive her. Then that made me feel sad. And I don't know if I'm going

Dana 31:47
to have those thoughts to, like, yeah, what would I do if he wasn't here?

Scott Benner 31:52
Yeah, except I know that. I think there is a part of me that thinks that after the sadness passed, I would probably really enjoy myself for like, a week, and then it would go down.

Dana 32:03
Yeah, well, I know there's times where he's gone. Fishing or whatever, for a weekend. And it's like, yeah, I got the house. Am I so? It doesn't last too long. Yeah.

Scott Benner 32:15
No, Kelly, in our conversation yesterday, let me know that she's thinking of moving to France without us. Oh, no. That's fine. That doesn't hurt my feelings at all. You can go by yourself. Anyway, so tell me a little more about, because it really seems important. You've mentioned it a couple times, and I haven't let you get to it once. So I'm gonna do it right now. But the idea of having children making a scenario where you desire to take better care of yourself.

Dana 32:45
I think, like, I always wanted to have kids. And I didn't know if it was possible, because I had a friend who was adopted, whose mom had type one. And they had had two stillborn babies. And so that was my thought always in the back of my head, like, oh, I, you know, am I even going to be able to have kids. And so my husband and I had talked about adopting, but we found out about a program at a nearby hospital called sweet success, where they, it was pre pregnancy, counseling for women with type one. And I thought, Well, okay, I'm gonna go to this and see what we can find out. And at that time, you'll probably be appalled. But the goal was to have your hemoglobin a one C, eight or lower to have a successful pregnancy.

Scott Benner 33:44
Oh, I'm not appalled. Um, I don't think they even could imagine how to get your agency lower than that.

Dana 33:52
Yeah, I guess that's the truth. So. So I did that. And I was able to be in the sevens when I got pregnant and the doctor before that I was put on human insulin finally. So that was probably 1986. Because then I was pregnant in in 86, and had the baby in March of 87.

Scott Benner 34:24
So that's regular and mph at that point.

Dana 34:26
So no, I was put on on human life before I got pregnant.

Scott Benner 34:30
Oh, I'm sorry. Okay.

Dana 34:33
And I guess it must have been Lantus. Right. So that involves taking more shots a day and I've they talked me into you know, you should they explain why taking human love before each meal made more sense because that's what someone without Diabetes, that's what their body you know, gives them insulin before each meal, or with each meal. So it's more mimicking what your body does. And after I had my daughter, I decided I, this isn't bad. I can take as many shots a day as I need to. That's not the hard part. You know, the hard part is keeping those numbers. You know?

Scott Benner 35:26
Yeah. And the testing still wasn't great at that point, right?

Dana 35:31
Yeah, it was still, you know, it at least There were machines at that point, not that little tube. And it really, every when I was pregnant, the doctor that I saw, was a specialist with high risk pregnancies. And he had me call every three days with my blood sugars. And I had to write them down and tell him what they were. And then he would say, okay, you know, increase by this much and

Scott Benner 36:07
yeah, that was so every three. He was he was adjusting your blood sugars based on every three day reports from you. Yes. And saying try a little more of this little less of this. Eat more, eat less like that was and you did that for nine months? Yes. That's pretty cool, actually.

Dana 36:27
Yeah, it was it was like, Man, I wish I could have this doctor all the time. I wish I could have someone all the time. Giving me the advice because you get tired of thinking about it all the time and trying to figure it out. Especially when it doesn't make sense. You know, when you think okay, I've done everything. The same as I did the day before. I'm not more active. I ate the same food. I took the same insulin. Why is my blood sugar higher?

Scott Benner 36:58
Yeah. Cuz of the hormones from the pregnancy?

Dana 37:01
Yeah, just.

Scott Benner 37:03
Wow. Well, so if we fast how many kids did you have? I'm sorry. Three, three times. And did your A onesies get better every time with every pregnancy? Yes. And do you attribute that to technology and insulins and things like that? Yeah. Okay. Did your understanding change at all? Did you do anything? Like functionally different?

Dana 37:27
Um, no. And the third one was totally a surprise. No. So we were using contraceptive sponge which I don't think is on the market anymore, because it didn't work.

Scott Benner 37:43
Did you name your kid after the sponge?

Dana 37:45
Yeah, I should have huh? Sorry, that ring doorbell thing just went off. That's

Scott Benner 37:52
fine. You're fine. Go. These are the people we sent to kill you, Dana. They're on there. Oh, well, okay. So you make you make three in what succession? How long between the three babies? How many years?

Dana 38:07
Um, so my oldest is eight years older than the youngest. Okay, so I had, I had her in at seven than I had my oldest son in 89. And then our youngest 94.

Scott Benner 38:25
Does this after a wedding, by the way, Dana or anything like that, or just a regular Friday night?

Dana 38:31
Actually, it's like, no, no, can I tell you that?

Scott Benner 38:33
Oh, I know. You and Mr. Dana. Were pretty active. I get what you're saying. Dana. It's okay.

Dana 38:40
No, it was really after a very sad event. Oh, oh. But it was kind of like, Yep, I know. That's, that's when that happened. And now we're pregnant. And I'm sure that was it.

Scott Benner 38:56
Being a sad sex can be nice. There's nothing wrong with

Dana 39:00
that. It's comforting. Yeah.

Scott Benner 39:03
Well, it's comforting. But now you every time you every time you think of Pearl Harbor, do you think of your daughter? No, I'm not trying to get you to tell me Don't Don't tell me. I just wanted to make the joke. That's okay. I don't know why Pearl Harbor. When was Pearl Harbor in the 60s? Yeah, before I was born. I my hope my my What should I have said Three Mile Island. That would have worked right? Yeah, there you go. Well, that would have been fun to hear actually. Dammit. Let's go back and do it again. No.

Dana 39:38
I feel like life didn't start till 1960 You know, that's when I was born. So I hear anything before that.

Scott Benner 39:46
Didn't happen. Yeah, yeah. Damn those dinosaurs. i Okay, so you've got these three kids. Are you and was it that you could tell that it was possible through the pregnancy. So you thought why don't I just continue on this good care in my regular life? was yes, it wasn't the idea of like, I need to stay alive for these kids.

Dana 40:09
It was a little it was both, but it was such it was nice to have that can feel like you had more control. Like, okay, if I want to eat more, just take more insulin, if I want to eat less take less insulin I it was after that. I felt like most of my doctor's appointments, I knew more than the doctor knew, you know?

Scott Benner 40:39
Yeah. And that's fascinating, didn't it? Because you don't, you don't have a ton of knowledge about it. Right, right. And you still are in that position, which that just proves out that theory that living with it is going to teach you something about it. All right. Well, that's interesting. Okay, so kids are growing up or you stay at home mom, or you have a job

Dana 40:59
as a preschool teacher. Oh, that was great. Because when they were old enough to attend the school, they had to be two and a half and potty trained. They could go to school with me, or go to work with me. And so all their, you know, young years, it was a half day. Preschool. So I'd be home by the time they got out of school.

Scott Benner 41:29
That's excellent. It really is nice. Plus, it makes everything simpler, even like commuting and, and everything. Right, because the kids are with you while you're moving to work. Yeah, yeah, that's nice. Okay. Do they have any autoimmune issues? And do you have any other autoimmune issues?

Dana 41:45
Um, I do not. But yeah, my oldest we participated in. I forgot what it was called. It was something like TrialNet, where the kids went had their blood tested to see if they had certain

Scott Benner 42:07
genetic markers for Yeah, yeah.

Dana 42:10
And my, my oldest my daughter did. And when she was 21, she developed well, she got diagnosed with type one, then they told her it was type two, then it's,

Scott Benner 42:28
that's silly. If she had the markers, and you had type one, what are we doing toner? She has typed, right? Yeah. So we were

Dana 42:34
trying to tell her type two. She told them, you know, no, my mom's type one. I want to be on insulin. And she talked them into putting her on insulin, but they gave her insulin and some type two medications. Like I think it was Metformin.

Scott Benner 42:55
Is this in the early 90s? I'm just trying to do the rough math between No, no.

Dana 43:00
Okay, let's see. She was born 87. No, it was like 2000.

Scott Benner 43:11
Why did I say 90s? It should have been in the in early 2000s 2005. Ish around there. Yeah, sir.

Dana 43:18
Okay. Probably 2007 2008. Okay. Okay.

Scott Benner 43:24
And so it's that's a more modern diagnosis, but still not ultra modern. That's a few years after? Oh, gosh, 2007 would have been just a year after Arden. So she's an adult at that point, right. Yeah, she's

Dana 43:39
in college, living with roommates.

Scott Benner 43:46
Do you and she have a connection about diabetes? You talk about it and help each other at that point? I mean, because now you know what it's like for nobody to help you. Right? So

Dana 43:56
yes. Although it's like, no, I don't want to go there. So I'm not going to make you have to erase anything. So. But yes, we have that in common. And we can talk about that. And she's probably not going to listen to this. So all I can say is, she doesn't take as good care of herself as I wish she would.

Scott Benner 44:18
Okay. Well, I think I think that recording the podcast teaches me that everyone takes care of their diabetes commensurate to their personality, if that makes sense. And I and and your personality and what you care about changes as you get older as well. I mean, it happened for you. So there's no reason why it couldn't happen for her as she had children. No, do you think she will one day?

Dana 44:48
No, no. We've talked about that. I I think she may she's not married. She's not in a relationship. Um, She has talked about adopting. She's a sign language interpreter, and she's very involved in the Deaf community. Okay. And she's talking about adopting a deaf child

Scott Benner 45:17
to cool job. And that would be a lovely thing to do. Yeah. And she also saw you Foster was it by the way, it wasn't her that talked you into the foster and it was, what was her? It was her. Oh, okay. All right. Well, yeah, she thinks differently, so she'll find something.

Dana 45:32
Yeah. So she even talked me into taking sign language classes, so, so that I now feel I could communicate with a deaf grandchild if, if that happens.

Scott Benner 45:46
Oh, that's wonderful. So it's just on the diabetes point. You have different goals than she does. Is that right?

Dana 45:56
Yeah. I think for her, it's she doesn't want to have to think about it and she doesn't want it to interfere with her job. And I'm afraid it's it's going to catch up with her someday if she doesn't, you know,

Scott Benner 46:12
do you think she's not doing well? Or do you think your motherly like instincts are turned up to 1000?

Dana 46:20
No, I think she's,

Scott Benner 46:23
there's okay, there's room for improvement. So then, let me ask you this modern day, before we started talking, you said that you went from MDI to a pump them back to MDI, right. Okay. Well, that's really

Dana 46:37
recent, and it's because of scar tissue. I kept having what like when the pump worked, it was fabulous. I mean, I love it. I wish it worked all the time. But I'd put it infusion set in, and then it would work for a day and then the next day, my blood sugar's kept going up. And I kept giving myself more insulin. And, you know, it took me a while to figure out oh, it's the site, take it off, and we were on vacation. And I developed this huge lump under my skin and it got a red and I took it off, and I was just so scared of that happening again. And I still have a lump and a red mark on my abdomen. And I don't know, I just decided it's reliable.

Scott Benner 47:36
Yeah. Did you try? Did you try different sets? Like I don't know what pump you

Dana 47:39
were using? Yeah. I I had tandem.

Scott Benner 47:43
Okay. Did you try the true steel? Yeah. And that's what

Dana 47:47
I was using. Okay. Yeah, cuz I have problems with the other ones. And the true steel was the one that worked the best. And I I think it's just having had diabetes for so many years that I have too much scar tissue.

Scott Benner 48:06
Did you just try did you try like completely different sights, like somewhere you'd never injected?

Dana 48:11
Yeah, I tried. I tried my arms was too painful. I tried my legs. You know, it just hurt. I tried my butt, which I, you know, never really tried before, but it kept getting knocked out. So I don't know. I just decided to take it off. I may try it again. I mean, I still have it. I still have all the

Scott Benner 48:37
control. Yeah. I mean,

Dana 48:41
honestly, how well I do on MDI now that I feel like I learned a lot from having a pump and having that ability to to give myself little minut amounts of insulin. So I'm trying that with the syringe like sometimes when I'm a little out of range, like just giving a little bit.

Scott Benner 49:03
Dean are you wearing a CGM? Yes. And that's working fine for you.

Dana 49:08
Yes, that Oh, black you advertise for Dex calm, and yeah, Dex calm, I think is like the greatest invention of anything that's come along. Because I never have to worry about not waking up anymore. Yeah, I'd have severe lows. You know, over the years, well, I already told you that. Sure. But even as an adult, there'll be times I wake up in the middle of the night and all sweaty and my blood sugar was 40. And, you know, I was just thankful I woke up so I'm Dexcom has gotten rid of that. You know, because it wakes me up. Yeah,

Scott Benner 49:55
yeah, no, I believe trust me. i Oh, you know, it's Funny. I've never once trusted anybody who started off the sentence by saying trust me, we take that back. But I'm very picky about who are advertisers on the podcast. You know, there are other companies and other items that have tried to get on. I'm like, I can't get behind that with like, full excitement. So I don't, I don't say yes. But the stuff that I talked about, I mean, yes, it supports the show and pays my bills and things like that. But they're, they're well curated. Advertisers on my part. So I'm thrilled that you found it. It's amazing. I've just wished you could find a way to make your pump work, because you could use an algorithm.

Dana 50:39
Yeah. Oh, it has one.

Scott Benner 50:42
I'm saying. And so it was, how long did you try the tandem?

Dana 50:47
Um, I had it. I started March of 2021. So not quite a year and a half.

Scott Benner 50:54
Are you really stuck with it?

Dana 50:56
Yeah. I mean, and I had, like, I was saying that the days when it worked, it was, it was great. It was like, I'm telling my husband, like, look at this, you know, my range 100% The whole entire day. And I, I know, I'm kind of old to be playing soccer. But, um, I started playing soccer back in when I was 39, believe it or not, in, you know, Women's League. And I would always have my blood sugar go up instead of down. And it was, it took me a while to figure out oh, it's the adrenaline, you know, talking with my doctor and he. So I would need more insulin. And it was always a tricky thing to figure out where I wanted my blood sugar to be when I start playing, to keep it from going up too much. And, you know, taking a little extra insulin or not.

Scott Benner 52:08
So you get the adrenaline spikes while you're playing soccer. You think?

Dana 52:11
Yes. Yeah. Always, no matter what I did, I tried to, you know, just relax. And it didn't happen. When I went to practice. It was only the game. So for some reason that competition.

Scott Benner 52:27
Danna, you're competitive? I am. Yeah, that's exactly what I would say. I would say you're very competitive. It's just like watching. Literally, like baseball players with type one. People say all the time, like, I don't understand. They go to practice and their blood sugar doesn't do anything, really. And then they go to the game It jumps up. It's because they want to win. Yeah, you're not trying to win practice. You're trying to so if your kids blood sugar doesn't go up at practice. They're probably not going to play the sport forever, because they don't love it. But, but um, but yeah, but but that's, I wish you could use it. Have you tried other pumps? You tried Omni pod? You try? Oh, I haven't no Medtronic.

Dana 53:07
No, well, actually, no. Back in 84, I had a pump. And I was trying to remember what it was called. I think it was called like you ugly or something. It was huge. So I was on a pump for probably a year 84 and 85. Because I have pictures of myself at the going to something in the 84 Olympics in LA and I'm wearing this big, huge pump on it. belt around my waist. So to find out how little they've gotten was awesome.

Scott Benner 53:55
I cannot find Wait, I didn't

Dana 53:57
really want to go on a pump Intel. It had that connection with the Dexcom.

Scott Benner 54:03
You know, that's interesting, because so many old school type ones say that. Like, like, well, when it works in tandem with something else, then I'll do it. But not until then it's interesting, like because you're not bothered by giving yourself injections. No, not at all. And you live through a time where the insulin wasn't as adaptive. So you'd probably don't think about things like extended boluses and Temp Basal and things like that. So you think well, there's no value in this. I don't I don't need to avoid these shots. If it does something else for me. Is that kind of the vibe?

Dana 54:38
Yeah, that was it. And also I retired from teaching preschool and I always worried about the pump in the tubing and kids pulling on it. But then there's not that problem with the Omni pot.

Scott Benner 55:00
Give it a try. Try the only power five. See if you like that. What's your goal range? What are you shooting for?

Dana 55:05
Well, I was shooting for 70 to 180. But listening to the podcast has made me realize I liked your analogies when you're when you said, you know, well, why not? 160? Why not? 140? Why not? Anyway, so I've been trying to be 70 to 140. And I've definitely seen improvement, it'll be interesting to see. When I get my next hemoglobin a one, see how well I've done without the pump. And that's gonna help me decide whether to try it again or not.

Scott Benner 55:46
What were you? What kind of agencies were you pulling with the pump.

Dana 55:51
Um, I, before I got the pump, I was probably 6.7. And then with the pump, I went. Each time I went to see the doctor got better and better. My last one was 6.0. And that's the best I've had in years.

Scott Benner 56:08
But you were irritated by having to change the site so much.

Dana 56:12
Yeah, it just became like it's taking it's interfering with life.

Scott Benner 56:19
Yeah, what, um, what what insulin, were

Dana 56:21
you using the pump? Human lug?

Scott Benner 56:24
Did you try different insolence?

Dana 56:27
No, never occurred to me.

Scott Benner 56:30
Yeah, I mean, I just wonder if, if it was the site, and your cameras and your body chemistry? Or if it was? I don't know. I'm sure. Humalog is FDA approved for use in tandem? I don't know if it is, but I'm guessing it is. But you know, they say like some sometimes you get clogs, and like my daughter uses insulin and a pump. That's not f it's not FDA approved for that pump, which just means they didn't test it. But you know, the people like, oh, it crystallizes in the tubing. And you know, we've never really had that problem. But But still, there's different. There's different things you can try. And you're retired, you have nothing but time. Give it a shot.

Dana 57:13
Yeah, especially because

Scott Benner 57:14
it sounds like you had an agency that was really just great at six and you had better stability. I mean, yeah, but I take your point, I take your point about having to switch it all the time. It's a pain in the ass.

Dana 57:28
Yeah, it is. It's yeah, I don't know. Try

Scott Benner 57:32
in pen. So you can get some of the functionality from a pump?

Dana 57:36
Like, try it in 10

Scott Benner 57:40
pairs. I think it pairs with Dex. Listen, mate, I think it does. It pairs with Dexcom. Right. Yeah. People are like, don't you sell in pen? I do. But I get. Yeah, I think it does, right.

Dana 57:58
Yeah, well, I will. I

Scott Benner 58:00
mean, just,

Dana 58:02
I never thought about changing. Insulin I didn't know was is there really that big of a difference between

Scott Benner 58:13
art and use Novolog. And we switched to a Piedra years ago, and I liked the way Piedra works. It acts kind of smooth in Arden. It's more deliberate. I don't know how to put it exactly. But for Arden, I don't know. And I've never switched back to Novolog to be perfectly honest, maybe I just wasn't very good at using insulin back then. But in the moment I thought I saw a lot of double arrows up and double arrows down with overleg. And I don't we don't see. We don't see arrows up or down almost ever with with Arden's care now you know when she gets an arrow down like something's wrong, so we just don't see that very frequently anymore. Wow.

Dana 59:02
Well, it's definitely something I'll talk to my doctor about it because she seems pretty open to changing things. When I changed from Lantis to receiver that was a great change. So there's definitely a difference and what is the long acting?

Scott Benner 59:26
Oh, that's a huge Listen, no disrespect to Lantus because but you know in your story back when it when it first came out, it was life saving for people. But recibo is going to cover 24 hours much more stably than Lantis is going to Yeah, yeah. And even

Dana 59:40
love Amir I think it was Atlantis and then live in there and then to receive and to Siva. Yeah. seems to not spike so it just keeps you even

Scott Benner 59:52
love Amir. I had to split for Arden when you know when she was little or it just never lasted 24 hours. Yeah. Yeah, mostly you're doing well. I mean, you don't really well, it comes down to me it comes down to your level of effort and the return you get for it. But I mean, honestly, you're two years away from being let's say, you were 14, and you're diagnosed, they said you were going to be dead when you were 34. So your two to two years away from 20 years on top of that, and how was your health in general?

Dana 1:00:24
Oh, really good. I think the only complications I have are, like I've had frozen shoulder. I had trigger finger I, I just went for physical therapy for it. And that really helped. So I feel like where my body is being affected by years of diabetes is tendons and ligaments, which is not something that's the you didn't read about very much. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:00:56
no, it happens. My Jeffrey here. Mike's episode. Yeah, like he's had all those different issues. But But, okay, so trigger finger, frozen shoulder, not good. Did any of those symptoms get better when your agency came down when your variability came down? I'm seeing the correlation with that.

Dana 1:01:19
Maybe the trigger finger? I don't know if it's that or me doing these exercises every day?

Scott Benner 1:01:25
What are your trigger finger exercises look like?

Dana 1:01:29
You're kind of like sign language. It's funny because I told the therapists you know, I want to be able to continue to sign so you know, I need to be able to move my fingers and it's kind of like making the letter E with sign language and then

Scott Benner 1:01:47
it's finger calisthenics, then

Dana 1:01:49
yeah, exactly. There you go. That's funny.

Scott Benner 1:01:53
Well, trigger finger is not funny. But the idea of you sitting there bending your finger, I find it amusing for some reason. But okay, so generally speaking, though, your health is good. I mean, you're in your 60s, you're doing really well. You're obviously like, on top of things like you're a great conversationalist, and you have a great memory. You're remembering things from decades ago with no trouble whatsoever. So that's all all well and good. Does your husband have any involvement in your care any now?

Dana 1:02:21
I'm not a lot, just, he just nags me sometimes. And remind me like, when we go on trips, he's, you know, make sure you take the glucagon. And, you know, we had to use that on me once when we were on vacation. It was before Dexcom.

Scott Benner 1:02:48
Well, you shouldn't stick it on your daughter give him something to do.

Dana 1:02:53
Yeah, she lives too far away.

Scott Benner 1:02:56
He could text them bother. You heard me. I was bothering my kid by text before we started before we started going, right.

Dana 1:03:02
Wow. She won't respond well to that.

Scott Benner 1:03:07
Yeah, hi, honey. It's just me. I was wondering if you Pre-Bolus for lunch? Yeah, exactly. I would go well, that's interesting. Does she Um, well, no, I'm sorry, I we're coming up on time. And actually, I have to go to the dentist. So I'm a little stuck for being punctual today. But how do you find the podcast? This fascinates me?

Dana 1:03:32
Um, well, I think when I got on the tandem pump, I, I had a friend who's on a different pump. Medtronic. Anyway, she said, oh, you should go look on Facebook. See if there's groups you know, that, that you can ask questions. And so that's what I did in through one of these groups. Somebody mentioned, the podcasts, I kept seeing this and I thought, Oh, I like listening to books when I'm on walks, and I walk every day, especially since COVID happened, I mean, there was nothing else to do so. So I started listening and found it valuable and interesting. And I especially like the episodes with older people with diabetes because it's interesting to me to hear how different care was even the care I received and then I've heard a couple episodes with other people who got really hardly any information as you know, growing up with type one. So I don't know I enjoy those episodes a lot. Thank you for putting on us old people.

Scott Benner 1:04:58
No, i Please i love talking to everybody. I also think that it's completely possible that at the time you were diagnosed, that in the medical community's mind, you're dead man walking at that point. And it's just like, Well, we'll see how long we can stretch this out for this person. Yeah, and now it's just, it's so much different now. You know, really, really just incredible. If you think about the mid 70s, and 50 years, you know, people are wearing devices that are talking to each other and making adjustments to their insulin, keeping their a one season a six is almost like no trouble. That's a, that's a different world. You know, nobody, nobody gets diagnosed with type one diabetes now and gets handed pamphlets about, you know, your life expectancy being shorter. So it's a big deal. And it didn't, it didn't get you either. So you you've really thought through.

Dana 1:05:57
Yeah, I feel really fortunate that I'm still here. I didn't know very many other people with type one, but my husband's twin brother, develop type one after a motorcycle accident. Interesting. Which is so interesting, because my husband's been checked many times. And they say, Nope, you're you don't have any, you know, sign of it. But his twin brother developed it. And anyway, he's passed away, and he just didn't take care of himself.

Scott Benner 1:06:37
Yeah, I think you can get that he could have had an injury to his pancreas. Right. That they might not have known about? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know enough about this to start talking about it. But that could have happened, I think.

Dana 1:06:58
I think so too. I think I suspect that he had he lost the use of one arm. Like it affected the nerve in the arm. Oh. And he just, I don't know,

Scott Benner 1:07:15
did I had a couple of motorcycle accidents when I was young. And I'm lucky that I'm alive. So I know how, how vicious they can be. Yeah, like I've ever talked about on here. One day, not today, Dana. Okay, we got time.

Dana 1:07:30
But I'll be listening for that episode. Thank

Scott Benner 1:07:32
you the episode where I tell you how I got hit by a car and flipped upside down and landed on my head. Exactly why 20 years later, I needed shoulder surgery because of it. Sure. I'll tell you that when one day Don't worry. I can't thank you enough for doing this. This is a really interesting walk through decades of diabetes and, and you have a great way about you. So I thought this was wonderful. Thank you.

Dana 1:07:56
Well, thank you. I enjoyed it a lot. And I will keep listening.

Scott Benner 1:08:01
Oh, thank you so much. Hold on one second for me.

I want to offer just a huge thank you to Dana for coming on the show and telling her story. And I'd like to thank us Med and remind you to go to us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 and don't don't shortchange yourself. You want a need and deserve an accurate blood glucose meter. Go to contour next.com forward slash juice box and get yourself one. Use the same meter that Arden uses get your supplies the way she does, too. I appreciate it when you check out the links. When you do it supports the podcast keeps the podcast free keeps it plentiful. And I can't thank you enough. Don't forget to check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, join over 40,000 active members every day, as they talk about type one type two gestational how they eat all the topics of the day around diabetes, great support, great community, don't miss it. Absolutely. For a Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes. If you're looking for any of the series within the podcast, and you don't know where to start, or where to find them, go to juicebox podcast.com right up at the top like if you're in a browser, you'll see it at the top. If you're on your phone, you have to hit the little menu thing. But there you're going to find links to the after dark series. They ask Scott and Jenny algorithm pumping bulk beginnings to finding diabetes defining thyroid diabetes, pro tip diabetes variables mental wellness, type two diabetes, how we eat. They're all right there. I'm just going to pick one randomly. I'm gonna go diabetes. Let me think which one random divining diabetes I've clicked on the link says the finding diabetes with Scott Benner and Jenny Smith CDE rolled out a little bit. There's a player right there. You could actually listen if you wanted right in your browser or just go okay, um, you know, I was looking for defining diabetes. Pre-Bolus That's me. So 258 thing go back in your audio app and search for it or click on it right here finding diabetes is made possible by Dexcom on the pod and dancing for diabetes What do you think of that the internet is amazing juicebox podcast.com

#930 Best of Juicebox: Diabetes Variables: Bad Sites

Diabetes Variables: Bad Sites. First aired on Oct 21, 2021.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 930 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's episode of Best of the Juicebox Podcast, Jenny Smith and I are going to be talking about bad sites. That's bad sites for your insulin pumps, doesn't matter what kind of pump you have. Sometimes those sites just kind of stop working, they go bad, we're going to talk about it. While you're listening, 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. You can get 35% off your entire order at cosy earth.com. When you use the offer code juice box, you can get a free year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first order of Athletic Greens that's ag one from athletic greens at athletic greens.com forward slash juice box and to get 10% off your first month of therapy with better help go to better help.com forward slash juicebox.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter contour next.com forward slash juicebox. That's where you're going to find an amazing array of meters from contour. They have beautiful Second Chance test strips so you don't waste any strips and they are so so so accurate. So accurate contour next one.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored today by us med now us med is the place where Arden gets her Dexcom and Omni plod, plod and Omni pod supplies from sorry, they have Omni pod five Omni pod dash Dexcom G six G seven libre three. Tandem they got stuff us med.com forward slash use Box, get your free benefits check today and get started with us med don't like the internet. Here's a phone number just for Juicebox Podcast listeners 888-721-1514, give them a call and tell them hey, I'm thinking of switching to us med Can you help me out? Hey, everybody, this is the next episode in the diabetes variable series. So it's going to be me and Jenny Smith. Jenny, of course, is a 30 plus year type one, a CDE a nutritionist she's the she has a whole bunch of stuff. And she's here today to talk about a new topic, something that might come up in your life that very well may impact blood sugars. Today, the variable that Jenny and I will be talking about is bad sites. On the front page of juicebox podcast.com. A lot of the series that are within the podcast have their own space, like on the website so you can see them because I know there's a lot of episodes. Today I've added the variable series. So that's there now as well. So if you're looking for a certain episode, you're not sure what episode number it is head there and do a little scrolling. You'll find it. All right, Jenny. So I have four of them set aside to try for today. One of them. I can't wait to see how you respond. But the other ones are our I want to start with a couple that are shorter I think and and then see see what we're gonna get to so Okay, this one I think is going to be a really short variable. But I want to talk about bad sites. So just you're using an insulin pump. And the site stops being as effective as you expect or as you've I guess experienced already with the site. But people have the hardest time bailing changing up site. Yeah. It's that they the hope that sticks with them is sometimes fascinating. I can't tell if it's the if it's this thing supposed to last this long, dammit. Like, I'm not giving up or I mean, I even get if it's money. But right. You know, like if you're saying, I don't want to take this thing off, but if you have insurance. So I guess the first thing to say to people is if you have insurance, and you experience bad sides, your provider can write you a prescription for more stuff, if that becomes necessary

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:43
to change more frequently, not at all. No. In fact, with all the pumps, I think there are people who definitely find I get to day two, I can maybe make it to day two and a half if it looks like it's really really still working well. But I don't push it anymore to day three. So yes, I mean if you're one of those people that just don't push it, know what you know? And ask your doctor to write for changes every 48 hours instead of every 72.

Scott Benner 5:09
Yeah, it's so an example is you know what the funniest thing about diabetes is whenever I go to talk about I always have a fresh example because never stops. But Arden and I are gonna go shopping this afternoon together, we're going to find little baskets to put on her shelf that she put up, she put up shelves, and she wants to put baskets on the shelves. I've been a stay at home dad for a long time. So that seems like a reasonable way for me to spend my afternoon to me,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:33
but for bunny eggs or something or what is she putting?

Scott Benner 5:37
I don't know what she's putting out there. Hopefully she's not hiding, you know, paraphernalia. Which I don't believe she is. But not the point. The point is that I woke up this morning to find that Arden's blood sugar had been fairly sticky at like 140 overnight. And I thought, Oh, we must have missed on the last thing that she ate. And you know, the basil is holding her nice and steady. I'll Bolus this i Bolus it and it doesn't move. And as soon as that happened, I thought this site is shot. Like it just it hits me like immediately. Now do I yank the pump off or right away? No, I turned to all of her settings up a little bit, it made all her insulin stronger. And it worked. And then when the settings reverted back, it drifted back up again. So in my mind, she's not getting insulin correctly anymore, because I'm not getting what I expect. And so I told her just before you and I did this, I said, Listen, do one more Bolus, because that's going to bridge this time, I'm going to be talking to Jenny. And then I said, and then we're going to pull your pump before we go before we go out. Because I mean, to get eight more hours out of this thing. I mean, I guess we could just jack it up. It's probably leaking, right? Or something good? Or what? So what are all the things that could go wrong with a site?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:55
Yeah, it's like a rabbit hole of information about site, right? It really is. So what could it be, it could be that the site is in a place that just got bumped or nudged or something. And so now, it's not really working as well under the site, maybe you develop like a little tiny, like, I don't know, like a class, let's say, but it's not absorbing quite as well. Thus, when you bump everything up, and now you're jacking in a little bit more insulin, it's kind of pushing out enough to overcome whatever the reason for the resistance is at the site, it just could be that this area, especially if you've documented enough to know the, you know, the right hip and the left hip don't absorb as well after day two, so let's just change it when it's in those locations sooner than later. So it could be the site, right? You know, variables of site, it could be infection at the site, especially in infections, I usually, usually you know that you have something starting even if it's a mild infection, I'm not talking something major, but usually the site hurts. It's sore. You might even notice a little bit of bruising like outside the cannula kind of area, but definitely it's sore and sites should not be sore. I mean, they should be with the little flexible cannula under the skin. And or even the ones who use the steel infusion sets. It shouldn't hurt.

Scott Benner 8:28
Okay. So I have I'm going to make an admission here or not an admission and admission. I'm going to admit something. omission is when you leave something out. Yeah, admit Okay,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:39
when you you have to add MIT something. What are you going to admit?

Scott Benner 8:43
Arden's had diabetes since she was two. And I hear people say my pumps occluded all the time. I've never figured out what they mean when they say I mean, I understand the word. But I mean physically, like the word makes me feel like somebody stuck bubblegum in your tubing, you know, like, but that's obviously not it. So, when people say I got an occlusion, what are they talking about?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:13
A true occlusion is different than a site that's technically gone bad. In a site that is occluded, occluded, means like you know, like the tubing is straight underneath the skin. And typically tubing will be bent visually, to some degree when you remove it and most pumps I know at least Omni pads. If you have an occlusion and your pod errors, it will tell you that it's either a pod error, or it will tell you that a pod occlusion is detected and to change the pot at that point. So and all of the pumps will register an occlusion based on a certain amount of insulin that gets backed up into the pump and it triggers the alarm to say this in insulin hasn't gone in up to this certain amount and each pump has kind of a designated amount that triggers that occlusion alarm. So an occlusion is definite ly different than a sight problem. Now an occlusion could be, it could be something that starts to make the site not feel good to because obviously, if you've got like a bent cannula under the site, that might be more irritating than something that's just supposed to be sitting straight, right? Most often though, what I've found is that an occlusion will happen soon after a site change,

Scott Benner 10:41
okay? But a bad not always,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:44
but a bad site could be two, three days in etcetera. But an occlusion usually is sooner than later in the life of a site, mainly because it usually happens on the site being put under the skin, okay? Something has triggered it to bend, et cetera. Could it happen while you're wearing it? Yes, it could,

Scott Benner 11:07
if we're like, from the inject,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:10
more likely from the actual puncture under the skin,

Scott Benner 11:13
I should knock on some wood. But in 13 years or more of using Omnipod arms had one bent cannula ever, and I've never seen the occlusion thing. I actually think it's kind of cool that on the pod, if Omnipod thinks you're not getting insulin correctly, the thing just errors and shuts off. Yes. Like, it's just like, look, this is bad for you. I'm gonna force you to put on a new insulin pump now. Yeah, I've always thought

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:35
to it has more checks and balances to alerting sooner than later that something isn't right, internally than the other pumps.

Scott Benner 11:43
So I also don't see them as much since they took the manufacturing in house. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Since they moved from China to I just did an interview with them not too long ago. But since they moved that they have a if you've never seen it, it's astounding. Like the facility in in mass in Boston. Yeah. So maybe that's it, too. Okay, so So here's the bigger question, I guess and how to wrap this up. You learn what a bad site and bad sites just a colloquial phrase, it's not a technical term, it's a phrase that stops working the way you want it to, excuse me a site that stops working the way you want it to work, you start to notice them after experiences, like and then you kind of like figure out when you can be like, This is bad. I'm jumping on this. So there's no real. I don't think there's any way in this conversation to say just look for this, this and this other than to say, if the site's not acting like you expect, if it's towards the end of the site, life, maybe switching now's a good idea. Do you have anything to add to that? Or is that kind of it?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:46
It's kind of true. I mean, if you have enough hindsight from your life with diabetes, right, from experiences, you can say, Well, my lunch usually does this my breakfast usually does this, my run in the afternoon usually does this kind of thing. And if it's not, and considering other variables that could be impacting towards a higher blood sugar. If none of those are really in the picture. I usually our recommendation, take take a correction. Like you kind of did you drove a correction in and you're like, huh, I didn't do anything. Don't, don't play, just change it out. Just change it out. Get some insulin going again, who knows what the reason was, I mean, you could play with thinking about what the reason is forever. Just change it out deal with the high blood sugar and move on.

Scott Benner 13:35
Okay. All right, chat. GPT. Let's see if you can write a podcast ad for the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Wow, it works quick, ready. managing your diabetes can be a challenge. But with the contour next gen blood glucose meter, you'll have the confidence and control you need to stay on top of your health. This state of the art device offers exceptional accuracy, ensuring you get the most reliable results every time you test. That's actually true. This episode of the podcast is brought to you by the contour next gen blood glucose meter contour next.com forward slash juice box. It says I should put a sound effect in of the meter beeping, but I won't be doing that. Let's see the contour. Next Gen blood glucose meter comes with a user friendly app that helps you track your glucose levels. That's actually true. You don't have to use the app, but you absolutely can. And it is pretty fantastic. And the app lets you set reminders and keep an eye on your trends. It's like having your own personal diabetes coach right at your fingertips. Well, it's a lot like having an app but I see what it's getting at and for your valued our valued podcast listeners. Listen guys, I got a website. Contour next one.com forward slash juice box. You can learn a lot about the meters there. They really are terrific. They're super accurate. Easy to use, easy to hold absolutely fantastic favorite meters my daughter's ever used hands down. So don't let diabetes holds you back, take charge of your health, then experience the freedom and peace of mind that comes with using that contour next gen blood glucose meter. Hmm, I believe that by the way, it's a great meter, you need accurate tests. It's not mentioning the Second Chance test strips here, which I mean, blows my mind because that's the best part of the meter. Obviously, you can touch the blood not get enough, go back get more not impact the accuracy or waste a test strip. Second Chance test strips are fantastic. Which is not to say that the meter needs a lot of blood. It's just you know, if you mess up, you can go back without, without, you know, ruining the strip or the accuracy of the test. Seriously, fantastic meters. I love them. My daughter has been carrying them for years. They they're great long time sponsors of the podcast contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. When you click on the links, you're supporting the podcasters links in the show notes of the podcast player you're listening in right now. Links at juicebox podcast.com. And of course, you can just type in contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. I'm going to tell you about one of the better decisions I made last year I switched Arden's delivery of her diabetes supplies from where we were getting them to us Med and US med is more than edging out the service that we were getting from that previous company. right from the comfort of your home or office, you can join over 1 million satisfied customers who rely on us med for courteous, knowledgeable and trained customer care and their representatives are going to keep you up to date with your medical and diabetic supplies. All delivered right to your door. Us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check right now. US med features a litany of things that you're going to love. How about an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau. They accept Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers they carry everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM is like the FreeStyle Libre three, the Dexcom G six and that brand new Dexcom G seven. They always provide you with 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping. better service and better care is what you're going to get when you go to us med.com forward slash juice box on top of all of this US med is now dispensing Novolog insulin eSmart and human log insulin lispro through their pharmacy benefits. What are you waiting for us med.com forward slash juice box 888721151 For us med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash. They are the place we got our hands on the pod fives from us med provides Arden with her Dexcom supplies and are the number one fastest growing tanam distributor nationwide. I mean, I guess I could say it again. But are you just already online getting it done? Are you even listening to me anymore? Where have you already called 888-721-1514 don't like the phone us med.com forward slash juice box. The other day I got an email from us Med and it said are you You want some more supplies? I guess it was time and I said yes click the button and then they just showed up. You want to do it like that. It's pretty damn easy. Us med.com forward slash juice box if you enjoy this episode of The diabetes variable series there's more it begins episode 491 With trampoline Did you know that was a variable that could impact your type on and your blood sugar again? Also episode 505 temperature 507 Travel 511 Exercise 524 hydration. We talked about food quality in Episode 526 In Episode 530, leaky sites and tunneling episode 535 playing video games that can impact blood sugar 540 stress 544 masturbation 548 School 552 Bad sites you just heard that one here 556 growth hormone number 560s Asleep episode 564 Pumped site placement episode 568 A full moon episode 572 diabetes technology five ad is weight gain five ad for Walmart Walmart can change your blood sugar get out of here and episode 588 We call it the final episode sort of. And then there were two more 592 menopause and 596 alcohol. You can find a complete list of these just like I read to you at juicebox podcast.com. Up at the top you click on diabetes variables takes you to all of them. Or if you're a member of the private Facebook group, you just go into the feature tab. And there are lists of all the series there. That group of course, this Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes, but we don't care what kind of diabetes you have. Come on over and check us out. There's almost 40,000 members in there, and the group is completely free for you to use just like this podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with someone else who you think might also enjoy it. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. If you're interested in learning more about betterhelp.com, forward slash juicebox therapy available from BetterHelp. There'll be an ad that plays after this. But that's all that's left. So if you're not interested in learning about that, go ahead and shut this off. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors better help, you can get 10% off your first month of therapy with my link better help.com forward slash juicebox. That's better. H e lp.com. Forward slash juicebox. If you've been thinking about speaking with someone, this is a great way to do it on your terms. Better help.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is sponsored today by better help. Better help is the world's largest therapy service and is 100% online. With better help, you can tap into a network of over 25,000 licensed and experienced therapists who can help you with a wide range of issues better help.com forward slash juicebox. To get started, you just answer a few questions about your needs and preferences in therapy. That way BetterHelp can match you with the right therapist from their network. And when you use my link, you'll save 10% On your first month of therapy. You can message your therapist at any time and schedule live sessions when it's convenient for you. Talk to them however you feel comfortable text chat phone or video call. If your therapist isn't the right fit for any reason at all. You can switch to a new therapist at no additional charge. And the best part for me is that with better help you get the same professionalism and quality you expect from in office therapy. But with a therapist who is custom picked for you, and you're gonna get more scheduling flexibility, and a more affordable price betterhelp.com forward slash juicebox that's better help h e l p.com. Forward slash juicebox save 10% On your first month of therapy