The library has always been a very important part of my family’s life, and ever since the various libraries in the city a) made it possible to get books from one library transferred to your library of choice and b) allowed you to put books that the library has on order on hold, before it arrives in the library, I’ve been even more enamoured of the place.

Over the years, I have put countless books about diabetes on hold. And invariably, when the books come in I either refuse to pick them up or I pick them up from the library but don’t read them. I don’t even open them once. My reason for not reading them is of course because I don’t want to read about the complications that this terrible disease can cause because that always makes me cry. I am not brave when it comes to confronting diabetes.

Today I came across a book that the library will be acquiring, Diabetes without Drugs, and although I suspect the book is for diabetics who aren’t using insulin, I still want to check it out and read it, even though it will be a hard process. The author is a pharmacist and she thinks that America (and no doubt Canada as well) over-prescribes drugs for ailments that can be cured or managed through natural means (while the focus of this particular book is diabetes, the author thinks drugs are over prescribed in general). My mom is on a number of medications and I have often been curious about whether the effects of one are counteracting the effects of another. I understand it’s a delicate balance and if my mom is taking a medication that raises her blood sugar, chances are that research has been done to ascertain that the effect of the drug outweighs the side-effect of elevated blood sugar…but sometimes I wonder.

I read an article about the author of the book and that led me to an article about things that have been shown to have a negative effect on diabetes, chemicals like bisphenol A, benzene, aspartame and MSG. I don’t drink carbonated drinks often so I think I’m pretty safe from aspartame, but I know some diet foods contain it (not that diet foods are a part of my diet!). I also associate Chinese food (hopefully not erroneously) with MSG, probably because my family’s favourite take-out restaurant offers no MSG upon request. My family really loves Chinese food, but I can’t recall asking specifically for the omission of MSG from my meal.

I’m sure the articles I stumbled across were not meant to cause hysteria, but of course a part of me panicked at the thought of all the absolute junk I’ve consumed over the last 19 years in particular. I’ve always known it wasn’t good for me but now I’m wondering if my choices have begun to have irreversible effects on my future health.

I’m watching the 11:00pm news and guess what was just on the news? Bisphenol A (BPA)! This chemical mimics estrogen, has been linked to some cancers and has been implicated in type 2 diabetes. BPA is found in the lining of pop cans and food containers and it coats many receipts (this last one surprised me!). The study conducted found that 90% of the people tested had levels of BPA in their bodies, with adults aged 40-79 having the lowest levels, children aged 6-11 with the next highest levels and teenagers 12-19 having the highest levels of BPA (not surprising considering how much pop or other drinks in bottles and cans teens consume, generally speaking). An interesting piece of trivia is our city was the first in the world to ban BPA from baby bottles.

Anyway, that last bit was either a lovely coincidences or a sign from God. I’m glad I tuned in and I’m looking forward to actually read Diabetes without Drugs when it comes in!

Edited to add: The local news is now doing a story on traveling for diabetics…I was clearly meant to watch the news tonight!

Filed under: Family, Health by jummy