00:00 You’re listening to the live happier, longer podcast, episode 13.
00:14 Welcome to the live happier, longer podcast. We’re your hosts, Molly Watts, and Angela McDade. We are here to help you build the habits of a happier, longer life starting now.
00:27 Hey, before we jump into this episode, we want to take a moment to talk to you about the five for life planner. You know it’s really more of a journal or even a diary. Well, you know, we called it the five for life planner. That is true. There’s not much we can do about that now, but I think it’s still more of a journal. It’s 13 weeks. It’s undated, you can start anytime. Ah yes, that’s true. It’s not your typical dated calendar type planner, but it’s a really good tool for building the habits of a happier, longer life. That’s a good word for it. It’s a tool is perfect for tracking all of those five daily actions. Yeah. There’s a place to write things down for all five. Move, learn, share, give and let go. So when you say write things down sounds more like a journal!,Next time we’ll call it the five for live journal, but for now let’s just tell people where they can buy one. Right, go to www.shop.fiveforlife.co, that’s www.shop.fiveforlife.co And enter Promo Code podcast at checkout for a special discount. Hey, they’re a great gift for your parents or your grandparents and if it helps, just tell them it’s a journal. Really go to www.shop.fivefor life.co to get your planner/journal today.
01:47 Hey Angela, did you know that November is diabetes awareness month? I did actually know that. Oh Wow. I did not. Yeah, there’s a few people I know who have diabetes in their life one way or another, either a child or they have it, but also my sister Pauline just ran the Dublin marathon and her chosen charity this year was JDRF which is the diabetes foundation. Wow. Well, I to have people in my life, my brother in law has dealt with type one diabetes for most of his life at least since he was in high school. He’s in his sixties and I’ve watched as technology has progressed in terms of curing or treating his disease, I should say, and I know that there have been some significant advances. We’re going to talk a little bit more about those today, but we were lucky to connect with Stacey Simms who has her own podcast called diabetes connections and Stacey is a former news anchor broadcaster and was confronted with diabetes in her life with her child and really has turned into an advocate for diabetes and is really becoming well known in that community. We wanted to talk with her today because as we’ve done our research in terms of five for life, we know that diabetes is definitely something that is a disease of aging in terms of type two diabetes anyway. Although type one is, it used to be considered that a youth disease, but actually older people get it as well.
03:25 Yeah, so we’re going to talk and learn more about diabetes because it’s super important and given that it’s diabetes awareness month, we thought this would be a good time to do it. So let’s talk to stacey Simms. Hi Stacey.
03:41 Hey, how are you doing?
03:42 We are great, thank you. How about you?
03:45 Doing really well. Thank you so much for having me.
03:47 Oh, we’re delighted to have. Yeah, absolutely and super important. The timing couldn’t be better in terms of diabetes awareness month here and we just are super excited to talk with you. Learn more and educate our audience more about diabetes.
04:04 Well thanks for the opportunity because before diabetes was in my life, I knew very little about.
04:09 I think, you know, I think that there’s a lot of misguided information. I mean, that’s true in most medical, uh, in a lot of medical situations. Right? But I mean Angela was just mentioning, you know, that some people, they have this idea that, you know, you can get diabetes from drinking too much coke, you know, taking in too much sugar. People are not aware that type one and type two diabetes are very different diseases as far as how it happens. So, uh, yeah, it’s just really interesting how, although a lot of people know diabetes and have heart about diabetes. What they actually know is very little. So tell us more about your background in terms of when diabetes came into your life, how it did and how that manifested with the diabetes connection and in your own podcast.
05:04 Sure. Thanks. When my son was diagnosed with type one diabetes in 2006, so 12 years ago now, and it was right before he turned two. So you know, at that age you’re still measuring months, so he was 23 months old and he had not been quite himself for a little while, he had just gone from this happy, you know, easy toddler to grumpy and not sleeping well and honestly peeing not only through his diaper but like peeing through hismattress once or twice a month at night. I mean it was crazy and drinking all the time and losing a little bit of weight, which I hadn’t actually noticed. He was 30 pounds at one visit and then he was 27 pounds when we brought him into the pediatrician. So I called my pediatrician said, you know, I knew just enough. I was a health reporter for television for a while and then for radio I need just enough to think this kind of sounds like. And my pediatrician said, I’ve never seen it in somebody so young, but bring them in and we’ll rule it out. And so I brought my toddler in and of course we ruled it in and then we spent three days in the hospital learning how to manage. And at the time, just like you said, I really didn’t know the difference despite having done news stories on it. I remember researching for that story, writing the story, filing the story, then moving along and thinking to myself, what type one, type two, what’s juvenile? What are we, what are we in for? And so we really had to learn.
06:30 Did you think at that point we’ll have I, what have I said him and B did, can this, can this be cured? Like did you think like, I mean was this really outgrow it? Because I kept this all things right?
06:41 The first thing is, oh my gosh, did I do this somehow? You know, we are a family that has always eating everything in moderation. So my kids were not eating tons of junk food, you know, they weren’t drinking soda. Certainly, you know, I have a daughter who is three years older, so she was five at the time, but they weren’t eating Kale and apricots everyday either, you know.
07:04 You mean you were normal.
07:08 But luckily we were in the hands of a very good pediatric endocrinologist and he told us a few things right off the bat that I think set us on a wonderful course of the first was your son is going to live the life that he was meant to live. He is going to live to old age. This is manageable. You’re going to be okay. He also told us you did not cause this type one diabetes is an autoimmune disease. We don’t know what happens. We don’t know just like any autoimmune disease, we don’t really know why it’s triggered or how it’s triggered and he really set us up for success right away. So that was fantastic.
07:47 That’s wonderful. So I know you mentioned to us a bit ago that it’s an auto immune disease and despite what people think when they think of even type one diabetes, you can develop this at any age. It’s not, it’s not juvenile as it was once thought.
08:06 And let’s back up for a second, because I know a lot of people are thinking on juvenile type one, type two, let’s just define what we’re talking about here I think would be helpful. And that is, you know, everybody, and I’ve talked about this to preschool classes, um, since my son was tiny and it’s so funny because the kids get it right away. Um, sometimes their parents are a little bit more difficult, but basically everybody needs insulin. People without diabetes make it, don’t think about it, but we all need insulin. Insulin is what breaks down our food into energy and very, very, very simple terms. So it takes the carbohydrates, the sugar, the glucose breaks it down so our body can use it. If you don’t have insulin or it’s not working properly, that sugar and that glucose is circulating around your body. That’s why they checked to see if it’s coming in your urine. If you’re paying it out. Because if that’s happening, then your body’s not processing it correctly. And if there’s extra sugar in your body, it is extremely damaging to your vital organs, to the point where you will die within weeks if it’s not controlled for type one diabetes.
09:10 So there are real differences. People with type one diabetes do not produce insulin. There’s some study now that man I produced little amounts, maybe there’s something going on, but for the for the most part, in layman’s terms, you don’t produce insulin so you cannot break down the glucose in your food. You must inject or and infuse insulin every day, several times a day to try to mimic your pancreas. People with type two diabetes produce insulin, but their bodies don’t process it correctly. Something’s gone wrong in the way your body communicates about how this is supposed to happen. Exercise, sedentary lifestyle, these are factors but genetics and now some even environmental factors really contribute to this so you can be at a healthy weight and still have type two and you can be obese and sedentary and eat potato chips all day and not develop type two. Those are the main differences and as you said, you can develop type one diabetes at any age.
10:04 Half of all new cases are in adults. This is a very, um, uh, often misdiagnosed thing that, you know, it’s very confusing for a lot of people, including a lot of healthcare providers. Type two diabetes. They are seeing in younger people generally speaking, that was called adult onset diabetes. It is happening in younger people, but that’s not something that usually happens in, let’s just say kids under 10.
10:27 So with type two diabetes, this is not something that is typically managed with insulin. Is that right? Type two is more, yeah, it’s managed in other ways.
10:36 Well, you know, it’s a great question because I think most people feel like when you get diagnosed with type two, you’re supposed to diet and exercise your way back. And that can happen for a lot of people. You make lifestyle changes. It’s often the first thing that many people will try, but I’ll be honest with you, if it were that easy, we’d all be a size two. You know, my husband has type two diabetes and his doctor told him the first thing you need to do is get your blood sugar under control any way you can.
11:04 It’s a very dangerous to have that elevated blood sugar, so take this that you started him on an oral medication. They do start some people on injectable insulin, usually not, but it can Happen. Get that blood sugar under control and then deal with what you believe to be the underlying issues. Some people can control. Type two is diet and exercise. Some people lose the weight exercise every day and they still need insulin or there are newer medications that they’re not insulin there they are even injectables, but they are there to help your body better manage the insulins and make you less insulin resistant. That sort of thing. So I would say it’s different for everybody. I mean, that’s one of the weird things about diabetes that really is different for every person and that there’s, you know, one of the things that we try to do on the show and in the community is to lessen the shame because a lot of people feel like they need to take insulin with type two, they have failed. It’s just not the way it’s a, it’s a progressive disease shorts. It’s always better for anything. If you can try to manage without medication, that’s great, but you know, I don’t think anybody feels bad about taking their cholesterol medication everyday. And we’ve attached this guilt to diabetes.
12:18 Yeah. Well, and I think it’s because just like, you know, Angela mentioned there’s the one side with type one diabetes where people have misguided thoughts that you can cause it with type two. I think people, I mean it’s direct, right? They are told, you know, there is something you have done that has caused you to develop diabetes. Your lack of exercise. You are being, you know, overweight. All of those things that you really have caused yourself to have diabetes. So there’s immediate shame because it’s like, oh great, I’ve, you know, You did this to yourself.
12:59 Always throw my husband to the bus, I’m sure he loves this, but you know, I give him an example because everybody in his mother’s side of the family has diabetes, has type two. It’s really almost everybody in that family and he knew it was coming, you know, he was always tested, he was diagnosed with prediabetes and he really worked hard to try to stem that tide. But you know, he is who he is, his body is what it is and his A1C, is the way they measure your blood sugar under control is very good right now. And he’s off all medication but you know, he, he, he works hard but nobody’s perfect and he’s probably going to have to go back on medication sometime down the road. Even if he does his best to maintain his weight and to exercise. It’s very difficult that way.
13:44 Yeah. And I know that, that, I mean, I don’t know how much you can speak to this and this may not be in your area of expertise because you can’t know everything. There is to know about diabetes, but we know from our research into, you know, living happier longer and the, and the things that affect people as they age, that diabetes is one of those disease states that is associated with getting older. So I don’t know if you know, and that’s I’m sure, that’s more a type two diabetes that that’s referring to, but it does seem to be something that it just, like you said, your husband may have to go, you know, as he, as he gets older, he may have to. Is that, is that something that you’re familiar? Is it, is it true that it is something that gets worse as you get older?
14:29 It is what they call it, disease of progression. So it does get worse as you get older and many people in your, uh, your body may become more insulin resistant, you know, that kind of thing. No, I definitely don’t. I can’t speak to a medical level of expertise on it, but certainly even people with type one diabetes, there are certain things that, you know, after you’ve had it for very long time, it become more pronounced. Um, a hypoglycemia unawareness, you not being able to feel when your blood sugar’s going low. It’s something that people who live with diabetes for a long time may find that they have. And you know, one of the things that really helps, I’ve seen and it’s helped me, but I’ve seen help a lot of people out as they get longer into this disease or even are diagnosed at older ages is community. And I’m sure you talked about this a lot, but the diabetes community is a really, really incredible resource that I think your listeners can take advantage of them. And I’ll just give you one example. There’s a group called diabetes sisters and they have meetups around the country. They do virtual meetups as well, but their group for women, any type of diabetes. And they do a wonderful job of helping with information and you know, just being here and you know, having a community as we get older is something that really leads to better health outcomes.
15:51 I mean we see that across, you know, whether it’s diabetes or anything, All part of life, you know, but it’s especially so when you’ve got these very distinct issues, problems, whatever, something that you can all identify with, it’s certainly super important. Yeah. And, and in your and in your aging process, you know, that’s a part of just keeping that connection and, and getting more and more support too. So, um, we kind of got off off onto other tangents, but you, you, you son was diagnosed and you’re a busy working mom at that time, both, both you and your husband I think working full time. So what then inspired you to start diabetes connections and your podcast and just really becoming an advocate for diabetes awareness?
16:45 Well, once I got back to work about a week after my son was diagnosed, we were very fortunate that somebody at the day care where he was and my daughter was also agreed to help take care of him to be trained. Um, so we were very fortunate as a, it was bumpy all around as we were trained how to give shots and do all of that is a very scary time. But I went back to work and I work at a radio station. I worked at the news weather and traffic station here in Charlotte, North Carolina and did the morning show, so I was out of my house at 2:30 in the morning doing morning show and it wasn’t the kind of show where we talked about our personal lives a lot, but my listeners knew that I had been out of work social media in late 2006, 2007, really wasn’t what it is now. You know, I was getting a lot of email from people who were very supportive. In fact, I got a bunch of emails from people in the Charlotte community who live with type one and said, don’t, don’t limit your son. Don’t worry about him. He’s going to be great. I’m a firefighter. I’m a banker. I’m not, you know, I live with type one and you know, my mother worried more than I did and it was wonderful. So I started a blog at that time, about a month later to share our experiences and I blogged for several years, then I started being contacted by people to come and speak at diabetes conferences and share our experiences. And Benny, my son likes talking about his experiences as well and when I left the radio station a few years ago, I just an I, it was really just the hours. I know you’re familiar with radio, it was just brutal. And after 13 years of getting up at 2:30 in the morning, my kids were in middle school, my older child was in middle school, I couldn’t do it anymore.
18:31 So I left and I started the podcast, diabetes connections because I really felt that there was a place in the type one community for a news show. I like to say it’s, I try to be fresh air for type one, so you know, we’re doing interviews, we’re, we’re doing conversations and we’re really trying to get the word out in the community about what’s new, what’s next, inspiring interviews, that sort of thing. And I started it almost selfishly because it’s the show I wanted to hear. I wanted to talk to all these great people and I wanted to ask them the questions I wanted to ask them. So it really has turned into a wonderful project for me. It’s actually the most rewarding project of my professional career. I think just what I want. What I get out of it every week, just what I’ve learned to help my family and I hope it’s helping the community.
19:21 Yeah, so I have to say this. I’m sitting here thinking, listening to you. You don’t sound like you’re from Charlotte, North Carolina.
19:33 No, I’m originally from New York.
19:37 Yeah, I was gonna say there’s a little bit of a northeastern accent there, so that must be. They must like you down there in Charlotte because you’re a northerner. They’re just. But so let’s, let’s talk a little bit about your podcast and about, you know, finding those inspiring stories. Think of one or a couple or just give us something that you, you know, something that was like so much fun to somebody that was so much fun to talk to.
20:02 Oh there were so many. I will tell you, there were two episodes that I was so nervous. I don’t get that nervous for interviews anymore. You would love talking to healthcare companies. I like really seeing like, well we don’t get into the nitty gritty of what’s coming out or you know, we’ll talk to lily about the price of insulin and I can ask those hard questions. But the hardest interviews I did were, um, I talked to Victor Garber who is a very well known actor. You’d known that you saw titanic, right? He’s on a DC show right now. He was just on Hello Dolly on Broadway.
20:33 Was he in Alias?
20:34 Yes, he was on alias. He’s been in everything. He pops up all the time so he has type one diabetes and I was able to interview him and I adore him. I just think he’s a great actor and I didn’t realize you lived with type one until not that long ago, about a year before you interviewed him. I was so nervous to talk to him. But he was wonderful and really just shared a lot about his life and experiences and talking about, um, he was in a production of it if it’s a production in Canada many years ago where he was with Martin short and all these people from Saturday night live and second city. And it just a very famous cast and he was telling stories about how they would kind of take care of him, um, and his diabetes little honeypots all over the stage incase he got low, you know that sort of thing. It was really fun. Um, and of course I’m always nervous not being in a radio studio anymore, that everything’s recording. That’s the secret of podcasting, I’m here by myself. Help. Um, but everything went well. Knock on wood. The other interview that really got me nervous was when Benny celebrated his 10 year, we call it diaversary, is diabetes anniversary when he marked at 10 years.
21:47 Um, I interviewed my whole family, so I talked to my husband, my daughter and my son. And that was very odd for me because when we talk about diabetes, but honestly it’s not front and center in our lives anymore. Like there are days when it’s front and center for the most part. we’re fortunate that it’s in the background. So talking to them, um, was very emotional, especially my daughter who doesn’t have diabetes. So that was a, that was a really interesting episode for me.
22:17 Yeah, I’m sure at five she was probably, it was probably a little scary and then as she’s gotten older she’s probably wondered, am I going to get diabetes too? I
22:26 t’s interesting question on. She was a super helper at five. Right. She very worried about her brother and then she was like, we’re going to, I’m going to help and you know, I’d have him in the car seat and she give him a juice box if he needed it. She tested his blood sugar one time while I was driving because I didn’t know. I didn’t want to pull over. I mean it was, she was great, but as she got older we kind of made this decision that, you know, he wasn’t going to be her responsibility, so I never taught her to do shots or use his insulin pump, you know, when we would leave them home alone. As they got older he had to be able to take care of himself. Obviously she was there to help if you needed anything, but we never discussed could she get type one. That was not something that I’m particularly worried about. I know it is a big concern because your risk does go up if you have a sibling, your risk actually goes up more if you have an older sibling, but I just felt that, you know, we’ll cross that bridge if it comes to it. So if I interviewed her again. I’ll have to ask her because that hasn’t come up much if she’s worried about it. She’s never articulated that.
23:31 And how old is she now?
23:32 She just turned 17. She’s a senior in high school.
23:35 At least she’ll be well prepared. I think if she ever has to face this. Anybody in your family would be well, well versed in how to take care of themselves. So that’s awesome. In looking at when we were talking about a little bit about how diabetes awareness and and especially for an aging population and for people like you know, that that we’re talking to and notice that you had talked to, I think his name’s Dennis Goldensohn. Is that right? Because he’s turning 65 and he has lived with type one diabetes his whole life and then some of the things that he was facing with Medicare and I thought that was very interesting.
24:17 We actually, I was part of a group that tried to get a presentation at a major conference this year about baby boomers living with type one and wasn’t accepted this year, but we’re hoping to try again for next year because that is just an amazing complicated situation. So Dennis was 66 and he came on the show to talk about his first year with Medicare and what change it was because when you live with diabetes. Certainly, there are basic expenses that can add up to large sums of money. You’re talking about looking for insulin dependent. You need insulin. You may need more than one type of insulin. Most people with type one use if they don’t use an insulin pump, is a long acting short acting. If they’re doing injections, then you need test strips. You need your meter. You may need a Ketone, a measurement of some kind.
25:12 You could have a blood ketone meter. You can use urine strips, um, you may need an insulin pump if that’s what you use. And a continuous glucose monitor, which is a newer technology that has changed the lives. This is a huge advancement we haven’t even talked about in diabetes and I think that people with type two are gonna be using this more and more. They’re really putting it out there for most people I think who are insulin dependent with Diabetes. We’ll be using this as a standard of care in the next 10, 15 years. And a continuous glucose monitor briefly measures your interstitial fluid and measures right under your skin. It’s not a blood glucose value, but it is a very close and very good. And if you don’t want to poke your finger, it is a way that you can put this on. I keep it on for seven, 10, 14 days.
25:59 There are different kinds out there. So Dennis came on to talk about, well I was paying for all this stuff and my insurance covered it and then I to Medicare. This wasn’t covered, that wasn’t covered and I had to figure out how to get this covered. And it’s so different. So it was really an interesting, an interesting conversation from where I was sitting, but devastating for some people.
26:16 Yeah. My brother in law who is 65, just turned 66 and he has type one diabetes and has had it since he was in high school. So, and I’m sure that he’s facing the same challenge. Um, you know, that is something that we are very cognizant of just in terms of the aging population. The baby boomers are turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 per day and we’ll keep on doing so right up until the year 20, 30. So just think about that in terms of each and every one of those, those baby boomers that is suffering or that has been living with type one diabetes for a long time and, and all their medication. Think about that implication of what that is. And the readjustment of that many people.
27:00 Think about it. You know, let’s think about it this way to the CGM is a perfect example because when the, um, it took awhile for continuous glucose monitor to be approved on Medicare. And then there are, there’s one I’m thinking of where I’m looking at my phone as we’re talking because my son for the last three, three and a half years now, he wears this, I can see his blood sugar on my cell phone and it will alarm if it goes too high or too low. If we set the range. And this is a fantastic tool for worried parents like me, for people who live older people, who live alone older people with type one or type two who may be unaware. They don’t feel those lows anymore who have hypoglycemic unawareness. So you take someone like Dennis who perhaps had used a CGM for several years, then he turned 65. It’s not covered. So it may be saving money in the short run. But if his health is affected and he winds up in the hospital that everybody paid more. Right? So this debate that’s going on right now, so that CGM has been approved, the sharing function of the cell phone was approved later and now there’s a newer one and they’re debating how to approve that. So every time there’s a new technology advancement, everybody gets excited, but then people on Medicare to wait and see if they are going to be covered.
28:22 There’s a whole other process.
28:23 And you say there’s so many baby boomers that the weighing the cost and I know the initial feeling is oh, I don’t want to pay for that out of my taxes. But when you think it through, these people are living better, healthier saving money by using tools.
28:39 Well the, it just, like you said, it’s, you know, it’s a disease progression, right? So if you’re actively monitoring and able to control disease earlier than you will be avoiding higher medical bills later. That’s, you know. It’s like anything, prevention is better than cure. You can stop the worst happening and then you know, you’re carrying along and it’s all good. But yeah, as soon as you fall off that cliff, there’s a whole lot else that has to come behind it. So critical stuff. So talk to us a little bit about what right now in terms of what are those new, you know, new things, new advances, new discussions that are happening around diabetes. I know you have an APP coming out soon. That’s going to be something that I know you’re excited about. Tell us about that, but just talk to us a little bit about what’s going on right now.
29:35 Sure. Well, my app is about as low tech as you can get. It’s about getting people together in real life because I have found that my in person meetings with people, the diabetes community have helped me enormously and believe it or not, studies show that when people meet in this community and share information and see and learn together, they get better health outcomes. So Club 1921 is this month in 1921 is your insulin was discovered and it is for any type of diabetes, any event in the United States. So I’ll give you all the information if you want to share me.
30:13 Absolutely. We’ll put that in our show notes.
30:16 You’re looking for an event type one, type two, gestational. There’s a type of diabetes called Lada, which is a latent adult onset which kind of mimics type two for awhile, but then becomes more like type one. That’s actually the one that a lot of your listeners as older adults need to look out for their doctors about. It’s called lada or type one point five. I know it sounds kind of Kooky, but it’s a real thing.
30:38 I’ve never ever heard of it so tight that point five interesting.
30:42 Often misdiagnosed as type two put progresses along the path, like type one. There’ve been more. There’s more and more studies recently about it that are showing that you know, a lot of people have to be shown this is a real thing and that it is its own thing. It’s not like I’m like the other types and these are things that I’ve learned by going to these in person events. No, I remember when my son was teeny tiny, we went to a local event JDRF, which is leading research funder of research for type one. They had a fun event at our hockey team here in Charlotte and lots of families with young kids were there and we saw a three year old with an insulin pump.
31:18 We were thinking about getting one for my son, but I was really reluctant to put it on my toddler and his dad said, Evan, shown your pump show where it goes. And he lifted up his shirt and he showed us the site and it made it so much easier to see it in real life on a little kid. And my son could be, oh, you don’t have to take shots. That’s your once every three days you just do that. And Oh. So it was really cool. I will say technologywise, what is very exciting in our, in our lives personally right now is that the CGM that I mentioned, the Continuous Glucose Monitor and the insulin pump are finally talking to each other. So all of this time we just, uh, we use a pump that is, the brand name is tandem. So the tandem pump and the Dexcom cgm talk to each other. So when my son’s blood sugar gets below add, it cuts off the insulin. There’s this really wild algorithm and it just cuts it off until he is back to 81. And that slowly comes back and brings us steady and I was concerned because he cut off the insulin that it’s going to be a really high but it’s smooth, it’s really wild. And next year they’re gonna have the same algorithm with the same pump and CGM setup that lowers your blood sugar. So if you hit, I don’t know, 180 or I’m not quite sure what the high threshold will be set at, it’ll give you more to bring it down. So I’ve heard spectacular things about that. So that’s kind of the artificial pancreas talking about right now. So that’s. We’ve got part one of that that we’ve been using for about two months and it is extraordinary. Probably 12 years. It’s the one thing that has, I say it’s less work for better results. It’s pretty wild.
32:57 That’s amazing. That’s incredible. And the whole idea of being able to monitor someone at a distance, like having that kind of information on cell phone. Think about that just in terms of. I mean, yes, as a, as a parent and you know, for us, I mean I think we’ve, you know, our kids are off at college so that if that were in our lives I’m sure and people that are listening to us, our audience, how empty nesters kids that may have. So that’s clearly something that is a huge benefit to them. But for the older population, I mean how nice, if you had a, you know, an older parent or grandparent or yourself, if you were living by yourself knowing that someone else you know or knowing that somebody could have that information. Keeping an eye on it.
33:41 Yeah, it is really nice. I mean even the basic ability to know what your blood sugar is around the clock yourself and know it’s going in and that I didn’t mention that’s another human to and will do for you is it’ll say your 115 going down quickly. So you might look good. A 115 on your blood sugar meter and a great number. I’m going to bed, but you’re dropping. You can treat that and head it off. Or I’m 92, but I’m going double arrows up, which means, you know, I’m going to be 200 within 10 minutes. It’ll, it really gives you a better idea without poking your finger 400 times a day. So you get that information yourself and then as you said, if you’ve got a caregiver, whatever your age is, it is invaluable. So that’s been a huge advance. And there are different kinds of CGMS. Um, there, there are different brands.
34:30 Well, because I got to say like, I’m like the biggest baby in the world. I would rather have. I would, I am, I’d rather have blood drawn out of my arm. Than prick my finger. Honestly,
34:43 I think I know a few people with type two, don’t check their blood sugar, you know, because of that they’re afraid it’s unpleasant, it’s inconvenient, they’re in public or their home and they just don’t want to do it. It’s inconvenient and that’s legitimate, right? I mean their Dr. May yell at them or they may not even want to go to the doctor because they haven’t checked it a month. That’s just not good. Rather stick my vein. I’d rather donate blood and do this, so if you can find a way around that with a continuous glucose monitor that I think is really going to be a sea change for people with type two, even if they don’t want to look at it. Let’s say you’re a type two and you don’t have to really worry about it day by day. You’re not in danger of going low or um, or really having a very, very dangerous highs, but maybe your doctor wants to monitor you for a month. You put one of these things, I don’t even look at it. And then your doctor can download the numbers after.
35:37 Also you’ve got that, even if you’re not looking at at it, it can alert you if you are getting dangerously high and low. So it’s not that you’re having to.
35:47 My 13 year old is not looking at his blood sugar all day long. He’s had it for almost five years and unless it beeps at him, he is ignoring it. And that’s perfectly normal behavior for him. Your eighth graders have to worry about this stuff.
36:00 Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s really awesome. It’s really good. This is great. I’ve learned a ton. One point five that that’s really interesting as well. Yeah. So if people want to learn more about you and about diabetes connections, where can they find you?
36:16 Thank you for asking it. The best place to start a diabetes-connections.com. The APP club 1921 will be strictly for events. There’s not a lot of Chitchat and personal stuff there, but I’ll read you the podcast every Tuesday. Lots of information on the website and I’ve lots of information on social media as well and I do have a closed facebook group for um, people listen to the podcast if anybody wants to join that as diabetes connections the group.
36:44 Awesome. We will put links to all of that in our show notes as well. Stacy, it has just been so much fun to talk with you and learn more about diabetes and I hope that we can help spread the word for people learning more about diabetes, learning how to connect with other people who might have diabetes and just help get the word out for you in terms of club 1921 so that we can maybe eventually find a cure. Right. Wouldn’t that be nice? Well, thank you both so much for the opportunity. It’s been so thrilled to this diabetes awareness month. I really try to get the word out outside the diabetes community. Try to educate within, but I always think in November it’s a great opportunity to let people know who maybe didn’t even think about it. So thank you so much for this opportunity. I really appreciate it.
37:32 And I just have to give a quick plug to my sister. She ran the Dublin marathon, I think it was two weekends ago and it was jdrf that she ran it for. That was her chosen charity this year.
37:46 oh, so you both have connections to diabetes somehow. That’s fantastic. Please tell her thank you. I love it. Thank you.
37:53 Well, thanks so much and if you need more information on diabetes, this is a great place to start. Diabetes Connections Dot Com and Stacey’s wonderful podcast and hopefully one day soon there will be a cure and in the meantime, take care of yourself. Thanks Stacey. Thank you.
38:12 Thanks for listening to the live happier, longer podcast. Now it’s time to move, learn, share, and let go. Five daily actions to make the rest of your life the best of your life. See you next week.
