Don't be nervous about your sugar levels. Here's why

The most bitter and fearful factors of Diabetes are results of your sugar levels - fasting and PP. Your mood depends upon the numbers and I would say from my experience, if your numbers are high, they psychologically affect you - sometime mentally wreck you! 

You start wondering why your sugar levels have not reduced despite medicines and sometimes despite insulin injections. You start wondering where is this disease going to lead you to? You think of the worst things that can happen to you. Then you will have your doctor, friends, Google  telling you that the worst part about Diabetes is that it starts gnawing you from inside - however, it does not show from outside. And that's the dangr of having Diabetes. Many doctors immediately prescribe you Blood pressure tablets as a precaution, for they say it is connected with your Diabetes; your kidneys may fail, you may ultimately get gangrene, you may get heart disease, you may get blind - I mean the picture is so bleak and so densely cloudy that automatically you become glum and worried from inside. That little Glucometer rules your damn life! That bloody prick on your finger dictates you - you may be the King or a MD, CEO of a company or a celebrated star but boy, that little machine called the Glucometer is who you have to kneel down to.If you have controlled your sugar levels, you feel elated throughout the day.

PLEASE NOTE:This blog is not to suggest that you should not check your blood sugar levels. Please go by what your doctor tells you regarding the frequency of checking them. This blog is also not to suggest that you should not heed your doctor's advice regarding medicines and insulin. This blog is a narration of my own experience - to tell you how you can reduce your sugar levels with diet alone and of course exercise.Help your doctor to prescribe you lesser medicines and simultaneously through self-study and experiment try to get rid of medicines to the largest extent possible, ideally, completely - and it is doable. I write here what I do, which has immensely benefited me, hence I would like to share my knowledge and experience as being a journalist for the last 27 years and RTI columnist and activist for the last 10 years, I believe in transparency and that you should share what will personally and socially benefit those around you.

I check my  sugar levels ONLY once a week - every Friday, except when I come back from a travel. Not to check sugar levels because you think your diet is working for you is also not the right thing to do. You must get your sugar levels under control - and once you practice and with dogged determination have the right things to eat and exercise, you will be on a path to reversal or diabetes. It will take you one or two years though of sustained self-control to the extent that it becomes a way of life. There is no magic. 

My first sense of relief came after reading this from Dr Chowdhury's book. (Please note: I believe in what he has researched; it is up to you to believe it or not. Here, I am not contesting the knowledge of Allopathy - as a journalist I research and spread that which I think is convincing. After all, this is the age of information explosion - like a teacher who can no more use a chalk and blackboard and insist on what he/she writes there is the ultimate knowledge (students may know more than him thanks to Internet) similarly, in the Doctor-Patient relationship, a patient has access to information on Diabetes - to read, study and analyse (not of course blindly believe in whatever one stumbles on the Internet, but use one's common sense to understand the written word in cyberspace and to read between the lines). 

Dr Chowdhury, in his book writes, `` Till 1997 fasting blood sugar of 140 mg/dl was considered to be normal and healthy, then an expert panel revised the guidelines and reduced the limit from 140 mg/dl to 126 mg/dl. This means if you have fasting blood glucose more the 126 mg/dl, you have diabetes. So, anyone who had a blood sugar between 126 mg/dl and 140 mg/dl which previously used to be considered normal was now a diabetes patient. 
``Further to make the situation worse, ADA (American Diabetic Association) pushed the fasting glucose standard from 126 mg/dl to 100 mg/dl in 2003. As a result, suddenly the number of diabetes patients in India increased from 1.3 million to 20 million in 2003 (in India three times more patients were diagnosed with diabetes since 2003) in the age group of 40 - 64 yrs and today more than 60 million Indian population is being recognized as diabetic patients.'' He attributes this to alleged marketing profits as the expert committee comprised professionals and entrepreneurs of several multinational pharma companies. 

So here's what your attitude towards your sugar levels should be:

1. FEAR NOT: There is no need to fear any upswing in your blood sugar level. I have noticed it is directly related to what you eat. Some lovely wine in the previous night's party can also spike your numbers. I cannot find that research to share it with you but it says a study found that after eating two slices of bread, sugar levels spiked considerably. So, just tell yourself - okay, I go on a strict diet for the next two days. Go dairy-free, wheat-free and of course sugar-free - ekdum, strict, strict, strict. Some doctors also prescribe going on a fast - for 16 hours in a stretch - like say if you have your dinner at 8 p m - you don't have anything until next day 11 am. You go on juices for a day - though I tried that once and had a splitting headache by 4 p m. Felt so ravenously hungry that i ate bhakri-pithla. So, do what is doable for you but definitely go on a strict, strict, strict diet for the next 48 hours or perhaps another 48 hours.

2. DO A BIT OF EXTRA EXERCISE: Dr Tripathi recommends climbing up the staricase for seven minutes and I have experienced that it brought down my sugar level by 60 to 70 points. If you are too bored with the staircase, you can go hill climbing. Being in Pune, I climb up the Parvati Hill or the Chatuhshrungi temple - once or twice a week or sometimes even once a fortnight, depending on the time I get. If your sugar levels are on the higher side, do check out this exercise. Though I must add, not everyone can climb - knees may hurt, legs may pain. So, you device your own strategy to exercise (tomorrow I shall write about all that you can do for easy exercise). It greatly, greatly helps. Now, you cannot be lazy when you are diabetic - God is giving you a chance to be active again. 

3. BE HAPPY AND CHIRPY. The main thing when your sugar levels are high is to be happy and chirpy. Keep saying ``All will be well'', chant in the name of God silently throughout the day, make fun of your numbers. Just tell your body that it HAS to get rid of that extra extra sugar within the next 7 days- set a deadline for it - and it works! The problem with only medicine or insulin dependence is that you turn to that poison to help you reverse Diabetes, so you feel lazy to make enough efforts to enhance your food and exercise habits. In the natural way, you turn to Nature and to the immense power that your body has to be your best Doctor! 

4. BE COURAGEOUS: Don't get weak on your knees if you have Diabetes - get stronger for you have to overpower that demon. Nature has given you in abundance to overpower it through natural foods and fresh air; God has given you immense will power and mental strength to counter it

5. ASK YOUR DOCTOR, QUESTIONS - the modern man has fallen trap to the money-spinning pharmaceutical industry. Tell yourself that you will make all efforts to reduce your medicines and insulin - that should be your first step of victory. Question and grill your Doctor - now the system is such that your many doctors consider you more as a client than a patient, then why shouldn't you the client, behave like a perfect client and know exactly what he is prescribing to you? Why should you become a permanent client for any lifestyle disease? What does he think of natural foods for reversal of Diabetes? What does he think about the present day milk that is often recommended to you as an integral part of your diet for Diabetes despite the fact that it is polluted with urea, antibiotics, hormones etc? If you ask questions, the Doctor will give you the right answer. Patients hesitate to ask questions. Often, even if the Doctor is prescribing the right food and exercise, patients will ignore that and count on the medicines that he gives, so that's how dialogue between doctor and patient has stopped.
If you come down from 3 tablets to half a tablet with natural foods and diet - isn't that the first step of triumph? Don't cow down to the disease - pick up your courage and courage of conviction.

5.DISCUSS YOUR DIABETES - it is very important to be frank about any lifestyle disease you have. You need not keep under wraps. It helps you in easing your mind - for anything you hide, gives you tension. 

Tension nahi lene ka - it does not help you in anyway. Keep smiling through your efforts to beat Diabetes. It's a great reason to reform yourself - physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally!

Tomorrow: Ideas for easy exercises