All About Diabetes

Will Cross became the first American with diabetes to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Cross has proven that even people with diabetes can conquer the world’s highest mountain.

Before Cross, a 49-year-old Austrian man, Geri Winkler, became the first type 1 diabetic to scale the world’s highest peak earlier in May. Nevertheless, Cross was happy to have conquered Everest on his second attempt.

Climbing Everest poses brutal challenges for the”ordinary” climber, more so for persons with diabetes like Cross and Winkler, who both have type 1 diabetes, which requires regular intake of insulin.Aside from hypoglycemia or low blood sugar episodes that could put their lives in danger, they are also more susceptible – to frostbite, bacteria and dehydration. Medical experts say Cross’s achievement would have been impossible fifty years ago. But with new and better ways to monitor blood sugars and improved delivery systems for insulin, even diabetics can now scale the “top of the world.”

Methods of delivering insulin have progressed from needle injections to insulin pumps. Even insulin has improved, and Cross used a form of insulin called rapid-acting insulin in his Everest expedition. Aside from an insulin pump, Cross also brought along a product called Flexpen – a prefilled injection device – to give him the most control of his insulin.

Besides scaling Everest, Cross was also the first American and the first person with diabetes in the world to walk to the North and South Poles and to climb the highest peak on each continent, an odyssey known as the NovoLog Peaks and Poles Challenge.

A Sunday morning in his grandmother’s house in Binan, Laguna found Joby Belmonte watching a public service program about diabetes and its symptoms. Then 17 years old, Joby casually shared with his lola how he could easily relate to the described manifestations of diabetes. Aside from being skinny and eating heavily, he always felt thirsty and frequented the bathroom many times a day. Knowing that diabetes ran in the family, Joby’s grandmother advised him to go see a doctor. The next day, they both went to a hospital in Makati and consulted a doctor about his situation. (more…)

For most people riddled by conflicting relationships, by demanding superiors or officemates, by uncouth and rude children, and by everyday stresses, there seems to be no end to the problems of daily life. Worse, the tracts of anxiety, worry, depression and despair seem to be not far behind. But heed and take heart because there is hope in hopelessness.

The fact is there is a way out. A happy way out. Relaxing the Mind and Spirit Healing and restoration is required not just by the physical body burdened by the gripping realities of life but by the mind and spirit as well. (more…)

She proudly walked the stage and graciously accepted the medal that symbolized her triumph over a disease that cripples many, who are not as lucky as her. Could it just be luck that Lola Dolores Fabian, 72, has triumphed over diabetes for more than 30 years now?

Lola Dolores is one of the three awardees of the Diabetes Achievement Award gold medal for having survived diabetes for more than 30 years without major complications of the disease. Every year, the organizers of the Diabetes Awareness Week award diabetics who have survived diabetes without major complications for more than 10 to 30 years.

Complete Faith in Doctors
Having diabetes came not as a surprise to Lola Dolores, because she says that the disease indeed runs in the family.One of her siblings, and her mother, also has diabetes. Even her husband had diabetes, and had been amputated a foot because of diabetes. Now, four of her eight children also have diabetes.

Lola Dolores was diagnosed with diabetes in 1976. She did not feel any of the usual symptoms of diabetes before the diagnosis. Not until she experienced breathing difficulties after a laborious activity did she find out that she had diabetes. Since then, she has been religiously seeing doctors for her disease, even when she was still in Cebu, and until she moved to Davao. Now that she’s living in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, she regularly goes to the Fort Bonifacio Medical Center, where she has been going for consultations for four years now.

Her blurry vision is what she regularly sees a doctor for these days. However, she says, it is not a major thing to worry about.”Medyo blurred lang (It’s just a little blurry),” says Lola Dolores. She adds that the doctor even said that her eyes do not need to be operated on.

She also relates that she had been operated on just once in her 30 years of being diabetic. In 2003, Lola Dolores had a gall bladder operation. Other than that and her blurry vision, she does not have any other major complication of diabetes. It was also only recently that she has been under insulin therapy. She’s been injecting insulin twice a day, in addition to her standard oral antidiabetes medications, for only two years now. This means that she has been able to have good control of her diabetes for most of the more than 30 years that she has had the disease.And it was only recently that she needed insulin to better control her blood sugar and diabetes.

No to Herbals
When asked what her secrets are to having stayed this long with diabetes without major complications, Lola Dolores quips, “Siguro dahil ang dami kong gamot (Maybe because I take a lot of medicines).” “I take about 6 tablets a day,” she says.When this writer remarked that she must have been very diligent in taking her medicines, Lola Dolores says that “Oo dapat, kase yun tang naman ang trabaho ko dito sa bahay. Mag-kontrol sa pagkain, mag-rest, at uminom ng gamot (Yes, I should, because that’s the only thing that I do here in the house. To control what I eat, take a rest, and take my medicines),” she enumerates.

Moreover, Lola Dolores firmly believes that regular check-up with a doctor and taking medicines prescribed only by her doctor is what kept her surviving diabetes. “So 30 years kong pagiging diabetic, hindi ako uminom ng mga herbal-herbal na yan (In my 30 years of being diabetic, I did not take any herbal medicines)” she stresses.

She says that she would only take whatever was prescribed by her doctor, and that she does not take anything without a doctor’s prescription. “Yang mga so TV na yan, maraming kung anu-anong herbal, hindi ako naniniwala dyan. (I don’t believe in the many herbal medicines I see on TV),” she says. Lola Dolores emphasizes that she only believes what her doctor says. “Kaya every week pumupunta ako sa doktor. Kung ano ang sinasabi ng doktor, sinusunod ko (That is why I go to the doctor every week. I follow whatever the doctor says).”

Not a Big Secret
Indeed, Lola Dolores’ secrets to winning over diabetes, are no big secrets at all. Every diabetic knows the importance of regular check-up and oral medications in controlling diabetes. However, it was Lola Dolores’ firm resolve and dedication to adhere to her diabetes treatment plan, that cuts her above the rest, and kept her winning over diabetes all these years.
Aside from religiously following her doctor’s orders and taking her medicines diligently, Lola Dolores also still watches what she eats and does a little exercise.

For Lola Dolores, being at the prime of her life does not stop her from taking care of herself. Even a small living space could not stop her from not moving around. She relates that she walks back and forth the whole length of the house as a form of exercise. Sometimes, she says, she stretches her limbs and flexes her feet even when she’s lying down on her bed. Her advice to her fellow diabetics is simple: “Always see a doctor for regular check-up and always take your medicines.”
Living with diabetes for more than 30 years is no small feat. Lola Dolores has proven that it was not just luck that kept her triumphant over diabetes. She has shown that having the right attitude towards diabetes and being proactive in her treatment, has made her worthy of being honored as a true Diabetes Achiever.

Get to know Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and how ballet has influenced her life.

Becoming a good ballerina entails a flexible body, a lithe and agile frame, and the passion for ballet. Furthermore, ballet requires strong and healthy bones to withstand the constant jumps, turns and twists that ballet dancers do. Ballet dancers have a greater risk of getting bone fractures as ballet involves a lot of bending and twisting of the body. Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, the country’s prima ballerina, is no stranger to bone fractures, having danced ballet for almost her entire life. (more…)

Bi’ve been tortured by this,” Says Antonio Garcia, a 78-year-old retired refrigeration specialist for the air force and navy, who has been living with diabetes for more than half his life. The illness is irreversible and he is aware of that. Having diabetes means a tough lifetime adjustment of lifestyle and expenses.
(more…)

Type 1 diabetes, which mostly affects children and teens, necessitates lifetime treatment and management. Patients regularly need insulin, glucose meters, and laboratory examinations, among other things. All these, of course, require money. But if patients don’t have any, where would it leave them? (more…)

He may not be the modern-day Vincent Van Gogh, but still, he lives his life in a different plane, a world which only few could understand and get lost in. He uses abstract paintings as his way of showcasing his talent—filling an empty canvas with his sharp and accurate brushstrokes. His painting career has blossomed to full potential despite life’s hurdles—providing for his family while managing his diabetes. (more…)

What is a miracle? How do you define it? Would you know one when you see one? Orestes Ignacio, 61, came face-to-face with one of the biggest miracles during his 58th year of existence. This is his story. (more…)

And they say teaching is best done when the mentor knows what she preaches like the back of her hand. She never ceases to learn and continues to live life brimming with zeal to gain more knowledge and acquire more skills. The knowledge and skill she eventually fills herself with, she then passes on to her apprentices. (more…)