Diabetic Cures
I love the nonsense I often read about how to cure diabetes. I have been type 1 for 39 years and if you add on the experience of living with my mother, who was type 1, for 14 years before that, I have been exposed to hearing about diabetic cures for over 50 years. There have been so many that it is difficult to remember each of the various schemes.
A buddy of mine, a type 2, decided to start drinking a magic potion of juice from Polynesia. This juice he decided after reading several web sites would “cure” his diabetes. The second day he used this “magic juice” he stopped using insulin. That was an unfortunate decision but he had to stop using insulin. He was a school bus driver, and in Indiana school bus drivers have to stop if they use insulin. Using insulin, whether or not you are well controlled, is an absolute criteria for immediate dismissal from driving. In fact my buddy had been dismissed from a long term long time bus driving position because he had not disclosed his use of insulin. I knew that because I dismissed him.
The thing is bus drivers are difficult to find and this man was a good one. Had he told us of his use of insulin I would have taken off the bus and given him a medical leave until he got himself in shape and provided a doctors statement he no longer needed to take insulin. I suppose he felt at that time that he could not do that. So he risked his job, the one we loved him doing, in order to keep driving. I call him my buddy because he was, the guy meant a lot to me and even when I dismissed him he apologized and left with a hug. He was a good man.
When he told me of the magic juice, I asked him to be careful and he said he felt better than he had in the last 10 years. It was the last time I spoke to him while he was living. I did say some words to him at his funeral. 45 days after I spoke to him my buddy passed away. Apparently his blood sugar spiked to over 700 and he was taken to the hospital in a coma. While in ICU he had a massive heart attack and died. It was a terrible day for me. The cause of death of course was clogged arteries. The coma did not help and his general health was fragile at best. Still when I spoke to his grieving widow she asked me if I wanted the reaming magic juice. I declined of course. She told me he hated the taste, but loved that he got off insulin. Magic cures can stick with a family, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.
Of course this juice is not the only magic cure. It was just another crazy cure. There have been many. Shortly after my mother was diagnosed in the early 60’s a coworker told her of a local doctor who could “cure” her diabetes and remove her form insulin. My mother and father went to see the doctor. He gave my mother his diet. It included dining on 5 teaspoons of mayonnaise each day. She was to start the diet immediately and stop insulin 7 days later. My mother and father had a bit of an argument about her doing it. My dad wanted her to take the magic cure. Mom was resistant. In the end my mother prevailed, she always did, and the diet went in the trash. Mom lived until she was 48. Eventually mom passed away from the ravages of diabetes. We will never know what might have happened had mom taken the ridiculous diet, but it is a safe bet she would not have made it to 48. Over time mom thought about the “magic diet” and every time she contemplated it she called it the idea of a charlatan.
Of course it seems like diet is the magic bullet to “cure diabetes” Everything from the raw food diet to the newest rage cinnamon. One web site claims that adding cinnamon to my coffee will reduce my insulin resistance. And of course there are the pills cinnulin. Cinnulin, according to its various web sites, will help deliver the maximum dose of cinnamon extract which will promote the reduction of insulin resistance. I could not find any specific claims that this product will cure diabetes, but these web sites generally make it clear that this is the new magic bullet in the war on diabetes.
I suspect something called Cinnulin would have appealed to my buddy the bus driver. Incidentally there was one study that showed marginally improved insulin resistance. However, that study has never been duplicated. Despite this lack of scientific evidence, the march is going at a swift rate. Amazon is carrying more than 20 versions of cinnulin. It now comes with all kinds of names, manufacturers and dosages. Proving it is just another in the long line of ways to overcome diabetes, that does not involve insulin, or FDA approved oral meds. I doubt this particular one will ever go away any time soon. Once it gets this sort of traction cures tend to hang around for a long time.
The thing is we who use the more dependable and FDA approved drugs have a responsibility to educate people who refuse to listen to doctors. We have to prepare ourselves for the ridiculous questions we will get from family members and friends. I hope I can do a better job when I get these questions this year, than I did with my buddy the bus driver. Because when he told me about the magic juice, I didn’t tell him he was following a dangerous path. Instead I listened wished him well and walked away hoping he would be ok. I was wrong. In his case dead wrong.
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Rick