#963 Diabetes Myths: Complications are Inevitable

July 27, 2023Scott Benner

A brand new series examining the myths surrounding diabetes.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 963 of the Juicebox Podcast. Yeah, he's here today

Today on the show, Jenny is back and joining me for another diabetes myth episode. Today's myth is that diabetes complications are inevitable. While you're listening, please, please, please, please, 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. If you're enjoying the diabetes myth series, you may have missed some go back in that podcast player and take a look. If you're not listening in a podcast player Oh, get one apple podcast Spotify or something like that they're free and way easier to listen to a podcast with speaking of different series within the podcast, there's ask Scott and Jenny afterdark algorithm pumping bold beginnings defining diabetes to finding thyroid diabetes, pro tip, diabetes variables mental wellness type two diabetes pro tip, how to eat and much more juicebox podcast.com Look up in the menu. You'll find them all. I drink ag one every morning and you could to use my link to get started. And you'll get a free year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first order. Drink ag one.com forward slash juicebox today's podcast is sponsored by cozy earth. Now. What does that mean? Does it mean the earth is comfortable? No. It means that you can be comfortable on Earth with some cozy Earth products. I just got my actually there's a box right here. Can you hear me kicking it? I kicked the box. That box has a new set of sheets that I've purchased with my own money not that I got free because they're a sponsor, and a brand new pullover in it cuz Scotty lost some weight, so I had to get a pullover and a different size. Yay. It's exciting actually. Anyway, that's not what this is about. Cozy earth.com use the offer code juicebox at checkout to save 40% off your entire order. I saved 40% off of those sheets and my pullover and you can as well. Now what are you looking for bedding? Is that what you want? You want towels because I use cozy Earth towels and I am very dry. When it's over. You understand? I'm saying soft, absorbent. You'll love it. I got the sheets, I got women's clothing, beautiful pajamas. My daughter's wearing a pair of pajamas from cozy Earth. I love the joggers and the the pullover like I was telling you about a second ago. There's a bunch of stuff that's been on Oprah's Favorite Things list over the past number of years that cozy earth actually looks like oh my gosh, it looks like Oprah's list 2018 that what I'm seeing here? Yeah, 2018 1920 21 and 22. They have had a product made out of their beautiful, beautiful materials. on Oprah's Favorite Things list. I don't know Oprah I don't have a favorite things list. But if I did, there'd be a number of things from cozy Earth on it. Seriously, take advantage of that 40% offer off of everything, not one item. By the way, everything in your cart cozy earth.com use the offer code juicebox at checkout. And because I prattled on like this at the beginning of the episode, no more ads. Jenny, Hi, how are you?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:34
I'm great. How are you?

Scott Benner 3:36
Good. Thank you, I have a very short diabetes myth. Okay, the myth is that if you have diabetes, complications are inevitable, they are going to happen. So it's a weird conversation to have. But I have only a tiny bit of feedback. And I think the rest will be from us. The diabetes causes the complications. And this person says, in my mind, it's not the diabetes, it's the high blood sugars. Now, I don't know if that's completely accurate or not. And I'm gonna be honest, from the perspective of a person who has a child with type one. This is one of the things that kept me up at night when I was first in here, right? Yes. Is this a thing that we can manage in a way where she'll never have a problem? And by a problem, I mean, she's not going to have a stroke or a heart attack or losing her sight or something like that, like these are the things I thought when she was diagnosed, right, or is this an inevitability you have diabetes, now something worse is going to come directly from the diabetes. And I don't I'm going to tell you right now, before I ask you to answer, I don't think there's an honest answer to that question.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:56
I will, I would agree, okay, because As in general, high glucose levels contribute to the majority of the complications and the problems that could arise down the road. How long do you have to have high blood sugars in order to create complications? That's an unknown. That's a, I can't give an answer for that, honestly, I'm quite sure that there's some research that defined some time period of something that leads to such and such, this amount of elevated creates, you know, problems in the eyes, and it leads to bleeding and hemorrhage. And those types of things are in the kidneys or whatever. But it is the high blood sugars, that impact and can contribute down the road to complications, the complications, you know, being heart disease, and stroke, and higher blood pressure and kidney disease. And I mean, all the things right, neuropathy or nerve damage, retinopathy, the problems and the eyes, all those kinds of things. And I have worked with people long enough, and with varying, I guess, years with diabetes, to know that there are some people who have had diabetes, a good trying to think of the, the oldest client I have right now is in her 70s. And she was diagnosed as a teen. So a good number of years with diabetes. And only complications for her are actually some heart things. And she also has a family history of heart stuff, other families that don't have diabetes, also have some heart disease. And she manages things really well. So you know, that's n of one, right? I mean, I've had type one for 35 plus years now. And I actually just had my eye exam, like my yearly, and the doctor was, he looked at me, and then he looked at my eyes, and he looked at me, and he's like, You got a pristine eyes, he said, If I didn't know that you had type one diabetes, I would never have thought, you know, to even be looking at your eyes. So again, there are there are varying degrees of complications. And when they start person to person, I would expect that some things are environmental as well write, some things might have relevance to the intake, you know, what the person is eating, and how those nutrients are fueling the body and doing other really good or not, so great things within the body along with the blood sugar management. So I think there are a host of variables that contribute. And you, you can't, you can't filter them out to just say this is definitely it.

Scott Benner 8:09
My expectation, what I what I settled on, finally, was that there's an amount of unknown. So there are the things we can control. But I do expect that if we took 100 people and somehow magically kept their blood sugar's exactly the same throughout a lifetime, that some of them would get to the end and be like, Can you believe I have diabetes, you can't know. And then some of them would be dead for 20 years. And who knows why, like like it right? It is going to be a little bit of a luck of the draw. But that's not, in my mind a reason not to try, like, like, that's, you know what I mean? Because that's my fear is that there are some, there are some architecture in some people's minds that here will if you can't tell me for sure, this is going to work out exactly the way I imagined it, then screw it, you know, better to die young and leave a good looking corpse kind of an idea. And and I think that I just don't think that's the way to go. I think, learn how to use insulin, you manage it? Well, you don't look at high blood sugars, and just say, Oh, this is okay. You push them back down. And you you know, hold on tight and hope you're the one you know, that does okay, because I think as technology increases, as insolence get better as they have. I mean, it's obvious the numbers say people are having better and better outcomes. But it's not everybody. It's the people who know how to use the tools. Right? Those people are having better outcomes. The rest of the people are still in the same situation. It might as well be 1940. And by the way, there are some people like some people who are so old, and they've had diabetes for such a long time back when they were like regular an MPH and even before that with beef and pork insulins and things like that. They're the picture of health, but I tend to think of them as the 95 year old lady on the news eating cake and Smoking cigarettes and going I don't know what you're all upset about. Like you don't I mean, like, that's, I think that person is just, you know, made out of titanium. Right, honestly. Well, and that's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:11
I mean that, I guess that begs a consideration of how did things get started, right? I'm old enough with type one, that I've moved through a lot of the transition of technology. As I've said before, right? I didn't have anything fancy. When I was first diagnosed, thankfully, I had a blood glucose meter that I actually had at home and could use it as I needed and wanted to write. But I think, I think, I don't know, I have no way to prove it. But the regimented way that my parents helped me navigate early on, move me in a way to maintain some stability. That also helped me move into what we now have in terms of technology that absolutely is helping me to a large degree, and also my knowledge base of saying, it isn't just knowing how to use my insulin, it's knowing that my lifestyle, and my choices also contribute to where I am today. I truly believe that right? And I add activity and I eat good food most of the time, and I use insulin the right way.

Scott Benner 11:27
I've known you long enough. That is That is my takeaway from you. Like if you made me write a story about you, and I don't even have any of the facts that gets my expectation that your parents were like, This is the path get on this path. And you got on it. And you didn't you didn't fight about it. Like I didn't. Yeah, your personality didn't let you go. You know what, I'm gonna go to college and eat a pizza every day. Screw you people, like, like, you with the program. And I mean, honestly, Jamie, I've said it before, I'll say it again, visually, you're one of the healthiest people I know. Like, I look at you, and I think I aspire to look like Jenny. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:04
please don't, that would require a lot more change.

Scott Benner 12:06
But, but, but honestly, like, I was like, I'm not at your doctor's appointments, and you have other autoimmune issues that I'm sure bother you. But I'm just saying, looking at you being in your presence seeing you. You're the you're the kind of healthy I'm hoping for, like, like, seriously 100% i There are times, I sit my own house, and I pick something up and I think Jenny would need this. I honestly do that. I've looked over other people in my life and gone, Jenny would need that. And I've said it to people who don't know who the hell you are.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:43
You didn't see me try fried green tomatoes, though, didn't you? I did,

Scott Benner 12:46
I saw that. They were pretty good. We're gonna see each other again soon. We'll get that dinner again soon. Actually, I know. That'll be exciting. I'll be and I'm gonna be so much better. You won't recognize me at first. But you'll figure out it's me event.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:58
Well, I actually also I already see the difference. So do you.

Scott Benner 13:02
I'm glad because I've gotten to an odd place. It's in my week OB diary if you really want to hear about it. But I've gotten to an odd place where I don't see it anymore. I see how people's minds play tricks on them. Like in the beginning, I was like, I'm getting smaller. This is amazing. And now I'm like, I'm fat. Like, like seriously, like, it's, it's weird how your brain talks to you. The last one and this. This is an older person. They said they were told they would never work past 55 years old. They told they were told, but but she did. She worked in a store at 67 years old with young people, but cried at her 40th birthday. And I'm so sorry, this could be a man who cried at their 40th birthday. Because they thought like that's it like I'm not making it almost. And from me from having so many conversations. I once spoke to a woman who was told to drop out of college when she was diagnosed, because she wasn't going to live long enough to benefit from college anyway. And she's still alive. I spoke to a person who was told that a man would never love them because of the trouble that they would bring medical. That's the kind of but I tell those stories because that's the mindset of this is definitely going to go wrong. And right. And the reason it worries me because we talked about so much how old thoughts still impact today, right? Is that maybe people aren't saying things like that. I mean, I hope they're not saying things like that out loud anymore. But isn't it possible that their thoughts are still tainted by the idea of like, Oh, you got type one? No, it's probably not gonna go good for you. Like I really you know, and I hate that because those those are the people who then are in a position to help you. And I wonder if the motivations not always Is there like, I'm not saying every doctor is like secretly thinking, I'm not going to help this person because they don't have any chance anyway, but but I do worry that it's not in the back of their head a little bit, especially if you as the patient aren't showing an aptitude for it, because then they might, you know, write you off in their head, and it worries me quietly. And that's unfortunate,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:19
you know, if, if you're the practitioner who has written somebody off, and you just keep, like signing their prescriptions, because that's all you think that you need to do anyway, there could be, you know, every visit is an opportunity to potentially help somebody take that step that they need to take, right. And if you're not doing that, then you are failing them, right. And that's sad.

Scott Benner 15:45
complications are not inevitable. If you manage diabetes, well, you have as good a chance as anybody else to get through your life. You know, if the proverbial bus hits you, it doesn't matter if it's a bus or it's diabetes, or something else. Like that's, that's the that's the risk you're taking being alive. So and since you didn't get a choice about being here, you're stuck with it. That's right. Here you are. So put your head down to work. Take your life and living. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, I appreciate it. That's kind of a bummer. But thanks for doing that with me. Sure. Of course. Our good friend Jennifer Smith works at integrated diabetes.com. You can hire her. Let's thank cozy Earth. They've been sponsors all year. They're fantastic. Aren't they cozy earth.com. use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 40% off of your entire order that's 40% on everything at cozy earth.com with the offer code juice box. And don't forget, if you know somebody who would enjoy the show, please share it with them, share it with your doctor with a spouse, somebody you meet on the street. And anyone you know who might have type two or prediabetes, please let them know about the type two Pro Tip series at juicebox podcast.com. Look up in the menu. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.