Today is World Diabetes Day. People often struggle to understand diabetes and particularly type 1 diabetes which isn’t linked to diet, weight, a lack of exercise or age. So here’s a video from Diabetes UK that explains type 1 diabetes simply:
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Here are some facts and statistics:
Quick facts about type 1 diabetes
- Approximately 400,000 people are currently living with type 1 diabetes in the UK, with over 29,000 of them children.
- Incidence is increasing by about four per cent each year, particularly in children under five, with a five percent increase each year in this age group over the last 20 years.
- Type 1 diabetes affects 96 per cent of all children with diabetes in England and Wales.
- Around 85 per cent of people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have no family history of the condition.
- Although it used to be referred to as ‘juvenile diabetes’, around half of newly diagnosed cases are in people over the age of 18.
- The UK has one of the highest rates of type 1 diabetes in the world, for reasons that are currently unknown.
- A person with type 1 diabetes will have around 65,000 injections and measure their blood glucose over 80,000 times in their lifetime.
From: JDRF UK, last accessed: 11th November 2019.
Diabetes is a chronic long term health condition that requires a lot of management. For example I:
- Inject insulin 4 or 5 times everyday.
- Check and record my blood sugars before meals and two hours after meals.
- Check and record my blood sugars before and after driving.
- Finger pricking to read my blood sugars 8-15 times per day, prior to my Freestyle Libre (more on this below).
- Count the carbs in each meal.
- Have retinopathy screening, podiatry checks, annual reviews (with both my GP & Endocrine Consultant), see Diabetes Specialist Nurses and see Dietitians. You can only begin to imagine the number of health appointments I have in a year.
Having diabetes can be frustrating at times, as any little thing can affect the amount of glucose in my blood. Things that affect my blood sugar include: physical or mental illness, diet, exercise, the weather, even the amount and quality of sleep I’ve had.
Management and treatments have mostly stayed the same since I was diagnosed with diabetes. It often feels like I am trying to minimise the damage that diabetes causes to my body until better treatments are developed or until a cure is researched and widely available.
The biggest change to diabetes treatment in the last few years is the Freestyle Libre sensor for blood glucose readings. This my Consultant has described as revolutionary and I have to agree with her to a point. This means no finger pricking (unless unwell), but it is only half a job. Next diabetics need a pump that works with the Freestyle sensor to administer the right amounts of insulin automatically.
What’s your experience of type 1 diabetes? Leave a comment below.
Blog soon,
Antony
Thursday 14 November 2019
I’ve really struggled with my mental health in the last few days. The days and evenings have all been tough. So here’s a video and photo update from Nick, Dylan & Russell, my Bengal cats:
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A photo of each of them, taken yesterday:
Nick, my black Bengal kitten, he wouldn’t take his eyes off me, I think I was being stalked :P.
Dylan always seems grumpy, well when one looks at his face anyway. He looks like an eternal pessimist.
Russell with the big eyes. He knows how to use those eyes to make all that see him give him attention and fall in love with him.
Despite what people say about cats being independent and not really caring about their owners, apart from for food; my cats have been a great comfort to me. Indeed Dylan, the grumpiest looking one of the bunch seems to be able to sense I’m struggling. He comes over to check on me and rubs up against me. Not his usual behaviour. I think it’s his version of a hug and saying he cares.
Take care & blog soon,
Antony
Wednesday 9 October 2019
Some Mental Health Advice to Madonna After Her Disastrous Performance at Eurovision 2019
By AntonyHealth, Music & Radio, The Web, ThinkingNo CommentsMadonna recently performed at the Eurovision Song Contest. Here’s a video of her performance:
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Edit: 20/05/19, 08:45 – I had to change the video as the user had removed the original. There was a Vevo video, uploaded to Madonna’s official YouTube channel however it appeared to have been altered to make her performance sound better than it was during the original broadcast. So I went for this video that is more reflective of the original performance.
Madonna has had criticism since, with many calling it a disastrous and possibly career ending performance. People have described her voice as flat or off key, her outfit and the Christian heavy iconography controversial and unappealing.
I must admit that cringed watching it. But I realised something from it: We’re all human. Even Madonna.
We’ve all had times when things have gone disastrously wrong for us. I don’t know much about Madonna to be honest, but I once did see an interview where she described herself as a perfectionist. So I imagine that Madonna is currently in a mental state of self-denial, or one of rumination with her critical inner voice in over drive.
So here’s some mental health advice to Madonna, from my book Mental Health Wisdom:
Rumination is thinking the same thoughts or replaying memories again, again and again in your mind. Nothing good ever comes from it. It’s like having a song that you hate on full ear-bleeding volume and stuck on repeat. Rumination makes you feel like you are losing your mind.
When it comes to replaying memories, they are usually memories that are emotionally traumatic. Our memory of events is never accurate and always has a negative bias. What you need to remember if you find yourself ruminating is that the event has happened. It’s in the past. It’s gone. You can’t change what’s happened, no matter how many times you replay the video. It’s time to accept what’s happened, how it made you feel, so that you can let it go and move on.
Rumination is a waste of time, energy and effort. Rumination and the Critical Inner Voice go together. The critical inner voice is that voice inside your head that says things like:
- You’re not good enough.
- You don’t know what you’re doing.
- Just who do you think you are?
- You’re worthless.
- You screw everything up. You are a screw up.
- Nobody cares about you.
The critical inner voice is abusive and says things that we wouldn’t dream of saying to our worst enemy. It never says anything useful, nice, good or kind. It tends to get louder and louder if we allow it to. Managing the critical inner voice starts with the choice not to put up with the things it says to you.
I manage my critical inner voice in two main ways. First by imagining a volume control knob. I imagine it being turned down and hear the voice go quieter and quieter until it is silent. Second, I repeat positive affirmations that I know are true. I say things to myself like:
- I am good at my job. I have a lot of specialist knowledge and thirteen years of clinical experience.
- I offer a lot to people around me, including humour, compassion and kindness.
- People value my opinion. I know this because I am often asked for it by others.
- I am doing the best that I can and learn every day.
Having difficulty coming up with positive affirmations about yourself that are true? Ask people who are close to you: What is positive about me? What do you like about me? Others often see things that we don’t spot in ourselves.
(From: Mental Health Wisdom by Antony Simpson, 2019, pages 97-99.)
So Madonna try not to be too hard on yourself. Learn from the performance, then let it go.
Write soon,
Antony
Sunday 19 May 2019
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Antony Simpson - Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.
Author of eight books.
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