Cancer Articles (Dr. S.N White)

It's always better to have a companion for safety's sake, as well as for company. You especially shouldn't do anything potentially hazardous like skiing or swimming alone. Still, there isn't always somebody around, and a diabetic does always need exercise. There's no reason why you can't take a walk or jog or ride your bicycle or play a round of golf by yourself. Just be sure you never leave the house without enough carbohydrate to see you through. Enough is the word here. Take along a lot more than you think you can possibly need. Then you'll never have to curtail your fun. Here are dietitian Michael Wedman's guidelines for judging how much to eat before different types of sports. 1/2 hour bike riding, walking fast, roller skating = 1 fruit added before or during the exercise. 1 hour bike riding, running, walking fast, roller skating, basketball, tennis, racquetball = 1 bread + 1 fruit added before the exercise. 1 hour canoeing, skiing, swimmin...

It could be that you've injected too frequently in the same place or that you're allergic to the kind of insulin you're using or both. Try to be more conscientious about rotating the injection site and, if the lumps don't stop appearing, tell your doctor, who may change the type of insulin. For example, you might be put on pure pork or on one of the newly developed "human" insulins, the genetically engineered kind that is supposed to eliminate allergic reactions.

Bottles is the correct word, because you should have more than one on hand. The back up supply should be kept in the refrigerator (not in the coldest part, where it might freeze, and certainly not in the freezer compartment). The bottle you're using (or bottles, if you use more than one kind) should stay at room temperature and be conveniently placed in whatever room you use to take your shots. Don't keep your opened bottles refrigerated. Not only is it unnecessary, but cold insulin causes more pain when injected. Insulin remains stable up to three months without refrigeration. You should by the way always watch the expiration date on your insulin. If you use it after that date it may not be as effective. For that reason, you can't stock up on huge quantities of insulin when you find it on sale. When June finds herself out of control, the first thing she checks is the date on the insulin she's using. If it's slightly out of date, she throws it away hastily. (Alth...

What if I forget to take my insulin injection?  At least you'll know you're not obsessed with your disease. But if this happens more than once in a great while, you'll need to devise some kind of reminder system, like a nagging husband, wife, or parent. If you have small children, you can give them a penny each time you take the shot. (They'll never forget, but don't let them con you into taking your shot twice.) When it does dawn on you that you forgot your shot, be sure to take an injection immediately maybe less insulin than usual, if you're well into the day. Sometimes the problem is remembering whether or not you took the insulin. Then you have to worry about getting a double dose or no dose at all. If you use disposable needles (doesn't everyone?) you can look into the wastebasket and find out, if you empty the wastebasket every day. There's no doubt that a good memory is a help to a diabetic. What if I take too much insulin by mistake?   ...

When should I take my insulin? Your doctor will no doubt have suggestions on this, but in general the answer to this question depends on how many injections you take a day. Most diabetics on insulin take one shot a day, and that one is taken before breakfast; usually, the recommended time is one-half hour before eating. For bettei control other diabetics take two shots a day of mixed rapid and intermediate insulin one hour before breakfast and dinner. Still, a few others, and June is by personal choice one of these renegades, take one shot before each meal. These three shots are taken one-half hour to one hour before breakfast and onehalf hour before the other two meals. (The insulin is mixed rapid and intermediate except before lunch, which is rapid only.) Of course, the actual daily timing of insulin injections cannot be all that precise, because life itself is so unpredictable. One morning you may oversleep, be in a hurry to get to work, and take your shot five minutes before ...

Can you take insulin in pill form? Insulin is not available as a pill. It is a protein, and the stomach would digest it the way it digests a lamb chop. Insulin must be measured into a syringe and injected by needle. That's how every insulin dependent diabetic does it, except for the few who own a needleless injector that jet sprays it in. The future may hold better news. Scientists are working to perfect an encapsulated insulin pill that can pass through the stomach without being digested. And, hear this: At the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, they have had success with insulin in suppositories. The question we have with this innovation is: would it really be all that much more convenient to, for example, insert an insulin suppository before dinner at a restaurant?

If you're a juvenile diabetic, yes, you're probably stuck (!) with it. Occasionally after children or young people are first diagnosed and start using insulin, there comes a honeymoon period. The disease seems to fade away, they can stop taking insulin, and their family believes a miracle has occurred and they are cured. Not so. Like all honeymoons, the diabetes honeymoon eventually comes to an end and insulin injections must begin again. (But enjoy it while it lasts.) Sometimes if you're an adult-onset diabetic you may be on insulin only until you get your weight down. Also, diabetics who aren't normally on insulin may have to take it when they're sick or have an infection or are pregnant. Then when they're well again, or the baby is delivered, they can stop. Finally, Dr. Michael Anderson at the University of Kentucky has discovered that with his HCF diet, many adult onset diabetics taking fewer than twenty units of insulin a day are able to stop taking ...

That depends to a large extent on the kind of diabetes you have. Lately it's been recognized that diabetes is really more of a family of diseases than just one disease. If you get diabetes as a child or young person (this used to be called juvenile diabetes) you almost certainly will have to take insulin, because your pancreas is making little or no insulin. If, however, you get diabetes later in life say, after forty you're usually overweight, and often if you get your weight down you can be virtually symptom-free without insulin. What if you're not overweight but you get diabetes after forty? Do you have to go on insulin or not?  You may or you may not. You're a fence straddler. June was one of these. She was diagnosed at the age of forty five. She was not at all overweight (5 '5" and 116 lb.) and never had been. Her doctor put her on pills at first (Tolinase). They worked for her for several months. Then, although she followed her diet meticulously, she...

The cells of the body run on a fuel called glucose. This is the sugar that the body manufactures from the food we eat. Glucose is carried to the cells in the bloodstream. But the body cells are locked up tighter than a Manhattan apartment. Glucose can't get into a cell without a key. That key is insulin. Insulin is a hormone that comes from a gland called the pancreas. In the case of diabetics who must take insulin, the pancreas is either no longer making any insulin or not making enough of it. That is to say, all or some of the keys (insulin) may be missing. On the other hand, in those who don't require insulin often there are plenty of keys or even too many, but the cells either do not have enough locks (called insulin receptors) to let the insulin in, or something is keeping the locks from working. For example, they may be gummed up with fat. What wrong with having high blood sugar?  High blood sugar is an indication that your body is getting little or no fuel. In des...