Holiday Survival Thought #1

:ynne and Shannon (Although I cab't find shannon's original post.)
I've learned TWO pretty important things about sugar since developing type II diabetes which was one of the most heavily weighted factors causing my stroke in 2003 (It had gon on undiagnosed until then and I was a chocoholic to the point that the other teachers on the staffwould come to me in desperation when the sweet tooth hit because "Margaret ALWAYS has chocolate." These are two fairly emportant lssons that might have made a difference in my life had I learned them earlier
*It's not the refined sugars that do the most damage to a diabetic (or presunably anyone else); it's the carbohydrates because the body immediately transforns them to sugar. Granted, most foods with sugar in them hace a high carb count; nonetheless it's the carbs rather than the sugar itself that's the enemy.
* In spite of all the joking that goes on about an addiction to sugar and/or chocolate, it's very REAL and is related to alcoholism in that doctors/researchers now believe that the same genetic disposition towards alcoholism can manifest itself as a chocolate or sugar addiction in those who eschew the alcohol Ergo why many adult chilften of alcoholics have a weight problem and a higher rate of diabetes than the 'normal population. (of course, a more sedentary lifestyle than most people is also a contributing factor)
another "interesting" bit of information which my neuropsychiatrist shared with me after hre changed my diagnosis from uni to bitpolar II disorder (something I still feel was an error because I have had not ONE of those awful manic episodes you guys describe so well here on B.B. As a matter of fact, the reason I even FOUND you all was because that same psychiatrist SUGGESTED (in response to by denial0 that I go on line and seek out others with the disorder to see if their stories felt familiar.(Only the depressions do) He told me then that alcoholism, diabetes and bipo;lat disorder have all been identified as sharing the SAME chromosonal location in terms of genetics and that was why many individuasls suffered from all three of the afflictions; My father's alcoholism and eventual diabetes were factors he weighed quite heavily in making his diagnosids. My siblings were actually ready and WILLING t accept the diagnosis because they thought it at least gave a NAMR to the fact that I've dealt with depression and been fiscally irresponsible at some points in my life, but then THEY weren't the ones being diagnosed! It's impossible for the logical part of my brain to accept the thought that EVERY individual who has had financial issues is bipolar anymore than I can swallow that ALL individuals who have gone thropugh an, um, less-than-discreet period of sexual activities suffers the dosorder. (I should have answered his question about whethe I'd ever been promiscuous by using Wisdum's/Christ's techinique by asking him to define the term, but my distorted self-esteem simply said "Yes"( and I'm not even Catholic!) Actually for a woman coming of age during the height of the sexual revolution, I can now look at it and see that I wasn't actually "promiscuous" by the standards of the time, but in my mind having had prenarital sex(especially with partners from a different ethnic group had cast me into that category (Methodists don't encourage it either!) To my knowledge my name was never written on a bathroom wall under the words "For a good time call" for Pete's sake! but my own low self-esteem and high guilt tendencies kicked into automatic Had I known the import of his question, perhaps i would have thought a little nore charitably about my sexual past. I was one of the last of my friends to lose my virginity (At twenty-one!) and even then it was with an old friend with whom I had been exploring the possibility of "taking our friendship to new levels," possibly marriage. THAT exploration blew up when he decided that he was actually "in the closet" and in love with one of his college roommates who was openly homosexual. Sadly, that ended a ten year friendship (We had been close all through high school) because of the uncomfortable feelings we now aroused in each other and actually for a (short, thankfully ) period of time made me almost homophobic. T. is now married with children (hapily so by all accounts.) I digress...I fervently pray that researchers will develop a definitive test for this disorder so that diagnoses mustn't depend so much on observation. In my case, at least, my siblings were eager to put a label on me ("At least we know why and what we're dealing with" and eagerly purchased for me such thins as Kay Jamison Redfield's (Have I transposed her hyphenated last name?) "An Unquiet Mind" and "Touched by Fire" and Jan paulry's much more recent "Sky Writing. Again, the only familiarity was the ocassional spending spree though even those times were minor compared to the authors.... I'm rambling again, sorry...My point is two-fold, 1. The genetict ninterrelatedness of those different afflictions and that it will certanly be wonderful when there is a definitive test/ cure/effective treatment (Somehow I think they'll be related) which removes any and all doubt and doesn't put us at the mercy of educated speculation. The depressions I own; they have been with me since the combined trigger of losing my mother to cancer and finding out about my then hysband's affair on the morning I returned from putting her in the ground after he'd been lying about it throughout her illness. talk about great timing!(Okay, you're already on the ground, let me kick you a few times for good measure) and I maintain that THAT combination of events would be enough to depress even the sanest of individuals. To my knowledge, there is no family history of bipolar disorder on either side of my family, though alcoholism runs rampant in both the paternal and maternal sides even though my mother was a teetotaler (sp?_ all three of her brothers were alcoholics and she married onr (an interesting(?) commonality amongst alcoholics. My mother DID have bouts of depression, but they were primarily seasonal, and to my knowledge she was never treated foe the clinical kind. She DID have an uncle who committed suicide in the twenties, so I guess it might be likely that HE was bipolar... I'm off topic again...Anyway,, the sugar cravings are ndicitive of a possible predeliction to diabetes II (adult onset) so make sure you keep your primary care physicians appraised of your cravings and have the yearly checks done, especially if athere is diabetes in your family histories. As I discovered the hard way, diabetes is nothing to fool around with: the possible complications of it going undiagnosed can be life-threatening.

Dessert! Gimme! Gimme!

And Larry- let's not forget giving dessert/special treats from Santa Paws to our furry friends! Catnip cookies, anyone?

dessert first-dinner second! As for the sugar and chocolate cravings I found that if I used candy bar Mini's and/or Kisses one or two was enough!