[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('killJOY', 'D')on and I both dig the pic, Pops. Pretty girl!

[Ludi]

Thank you for sharing your personal stories, some sad, some happy.

[SaitoHawkeye]

Merged by Pops.
Hey, just joined up to comment. Not even quite sure why, to be honest.

I've been an insulin-dependent diabetic since 2002(age 16), and barring some miraculous leap in medical innovation, I don't see that changing. I've always found apocalyptic/dystopian futures compelling, but always with the understanding that they're an intriguing intellectual exercise.

The past few weeks, the more I follow global news, financial news, energy news, I feel like we are rushing head over heels towards a precipice. I've always been aware of and concerned with environmentalism and sustainability, but the idea of simply running out of energy never occurred to me.

The scenarios outlined on this board seem like quite real possibilities to me now. In different circumstances, I might see it as a call to action. I'm young and otherwise healthy, I leave in a relatively urban area but near several largish farms, and I think I could wrap my head around a scarcity economy.

But I am literally physically addicted to the global pharma industry, I depened on them for every day of life. The day it fails is the day I resign myself to exhausting my insulin supplies and then using up the last bit to avoid a rather nasty and prolonged death.

So post-TEOTWAKI scenarios are somewhat academic for me, because there is nothing after a crash.

Again, I don't know why I joined. I guess I just want to know if anyone out there feels the same way, and how they cope.

[Quagmire]

Welcome Hawkeye !
It's easy to be theoretical and on this site. It gets harder when faced with real life people in situations like yours.
I don't really know what advice to give except this - store as much insulin as you can depending on shelf life and refrigerator space. Use the older product first and replace as you go.
Having a cold spring or stream on your property would solve the problem of possible electrical outages. ( I store beer in my spring all the time ! )
Try researching which herbs in your local ecosystem can help lower blood sugar.
Learn how to grow or gather and process those herbs. I know that nothing is as effective as the insulin, but in an emergency situation, you might have to come up with an alternative. Native Americans around here sometimes used Devil's Claw.
Anyway, best wishes and keep us posted.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SaitoHawkeye', 'A')gain, I don't know why I joined. I guess I just want to know if anyone out there feels the same way, and how they cope.

[Pops]

Hello Hawk, welcome.

Just by way of introducing myself, I'm 53, diagnosed with type I just over a year ago and also step father to a type I diabetic diagnosed at age 4, who would have been 36 yesterday if she'd have taken better care.

Yea, Overnight Armageddon would surely take us both out not too long past the last vial, kinda puts a damper on the slate-wiper fantasies, huh? I can get by on a low dose and low carbs but I'm still honeymooning and those Beta cells are circling the wagons waiting for the Killer Ts to finish them off.

But luckily I don't see much chance of the human race nuking itself or otherwise slipping back to the caves and I'm fairly sure stray comets and other such global extinction events are low probability.

And lets face it, we are a captive customer base. There are what, 20+ million diabetics just in the US and 10% or so are insulin dependent? Just because all the recombinant DNA wranglers are Swiss is no need to worry, we are a nice steady source of income. They won't be making insulin from piggy pancreas for a long time.

Where we have the advantage you and I, is that we have the luxury to leave aside all the Rambo fantasies that occupy the minds of the amateur post-apocalyptic adventure novelists, the kind of fantasies that whisper to them to buy guns and practice with the boomerang and poison tipped dart and ways of the ninja and save up for a he-man, two handed broadsword to wield in that fateful battle over the last can of STP.

That leaves you and me free to concentrate on reality - and fashioning a new kind of life. In my teens and twenties there were two things I liked (well 3 but lets stick with 2) and they were art and dreaming about a little place off in the sticks with a few animals and a few kids and a little wifey. In fact I can remember a sketch (or a number of sketches) I made of that little farm. It took some years and some detours but I now have the little farm and the good wife and the (grand)kids and make a living doing graphic design - sorta-art. It's not for everyone but a good place for us.

So yea, energy is getting harder to find and more expensive but it isn't gone quite yet. My thought is more and more of the most disturbing headlines will not be peak oil related on the surface but will at root be caused by ever more limited resources of all types. Environmental damage, recession, war, recession, radical Muslims, recession, you name it. Understanding the root cause of what we face is the key, then make a plan that fits your aptitudes and fit your attitude to the realities of an energy constrained future.

Search for the 5 rules thread on this site, it is a great place to start and take care of yourself!

.
And just so you don't think I've got my head in the sand, I have a little more than 2 year supply of insulin (at today's use ), enough syringes to make the DEA mad and a pile of test strips - though these are hardest to keep a good supply of because they are so expensive.

[quadzillajim]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SaitoHawkeye', 'H')ey, just joined up to comment. Not even quite sure why, to be honest.
I've been an insulin-dependent diabetic since 2002(age 16), and barring some miraculous leap in medical innovation, I don't see that changing. I've always found apocalyptic/dystopian futures compelling, but always with the understanding that they're an intriguing intellectual exercise. ... Text deleted
So post-TEOTWAKI scenarios are somewhat academic for me, because there is nothing after a crash.
Again, I don't know why I joined. I guess I just want to know if anyone out there feels the same way, and how they cope.

[IrishFarmer]

Hi there;

A few pieces of advice:

1. Listen to the fellow diabetic(s) who answer, rather than the rest of us - the fellow above, for example, sounds like he really knows what he's talking about. With these sorts of things, first hand knowledge is really the only sort that counts;

2. The fact that lots of people like fantasizing about the Apocalypse, doesn't make it so; perhaps it would be wise to treat "prepping" as a parallel strategy of insurance-that-you-don't-want-to-cash-in, as well as a fun hobby, and even something that can improve your - and other people's - everyday life. One example: First Aid Training.

3. Make yourself an asset to your community, and you can be surprised how far people can go out of their way to help you later;

4. As the man said above: you're the best kind of customer a company can have! Don't underestimate the power of people and institutions to deliver things that they can get a material benefit from doing;

5. http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Insulin.html - even assuming science took a leap backwards (and there was no industrialized genetic recombination), that doesn't mean no insulin. People were being treated with animal insulin since 1921; this needed specialist skills, yes, but the technology/apparatus was basically advanced Victorian era. No computers. The limiting factor, so to speak, was skill and knowledge, rather than equipment;

[rangerone314]

Consider a diet with stuff that doesn't aggravate diabetes...

stuff like jerusalem artichoke, chicory, burdock, onion, garlic, leeks, quamash, dandelion...

if you are in a warm climate: wild yam, agave, yacon, jicama...

[Argentsum]

I did see a post over at another forum that discussed, er, home made insulin.

It would take quite a bit of preparation, education, and probably a laboratory to pull off.

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=33479

[Hawkcreek]

I believe the sci-fi novel "Lucifers Hammer" (about the aftermath of an asteroid strike), has a character with diabetes, and discusses his plans to overcome the problem. Good book - worth reading even if it has no real solution.

[SeaGypsy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')iabetesFolk wisdom has it that bitter melon helps to prevent or counteract diabetes mellitus type 2[citation needed]. Tea from the leaves is used to this purpose in the folk medicine of Panama[citation needed].

In 1962, Lolitkar and Rao extracted from the plant a substance, which they called charantin, which had hypoglycaemic effect on normal and diabetic rabbits.[14] Another principle, active only on diabetic rabbits, was isolated by Visarata and Ungsurungsie in 1981.[15] Bitter melon has been found to increase insulin sensitivity.[16] In 2007, a study by the Philippine Department of Health determined that a daily dose of 100 mg per kilogram of body weight is comparable to 2.5 mg/kg of the anti-diabetes drug glibenclamide taken twice per day.[17] Tablets of bitter melon extract are sold in the Philippines as a food supplement under the trade name Charantia and exported to many countries.[17]

Other compounds in bitter melon have been found to activate the AMPK, the protein that regulates glucose uptake (a process which is impaired in diabetics).[18][19][20][21][22]

Bitter melon also contains a lectin that has insulin-like activity due to its non-protein-specific linking together to insulin receptors. This lectin lowers blood glucose concentrations by acting on peripheral tissues and, similar to insulin's effects in the brain, suppressing appetite. This lectin is likely a major contributor to the hypoglycemic effect that develops after eating bitter melon.[citation needed]

[FairMaiden]

Hi and welcome. I felt the same way when I first started reading this forum back in '04. I took a year to jump in tho. A bit shy. Now I kind of feel numb to most of the doom and gloom. Living every day to the fullest is good advice in any situation...I might even make it to tomm let alone a collapse...no one really knows when their time is up.

If you do some research into it, a lot of folks claim to control diabetes with a low carb diet (absolutly NO sugar and no starch). Here is a legitimate trial showing real promise:

http://www.dsolve.com/news-aamp-info-ot ... wcarbtrial

It makes sense if you think about it - no sugar of ANY kind and you shouldn't have insulin spikes. If I were diabetic, I'd try keeping records of my sugar levels after eating all my fave foods just to be "safe". Then you will know how your body reacts specifically to foods. You could plan a diet that works specifically for your body.

Don't give up hope!

[Yurt Lover]

I have had type 1 diabetes since the age of 6. When I got diabetes, the only insulin available was U40 porcine insulin. I took U40 NPH. A couple years later there was U80 and then U100. Soon after we had Humalin insulin which was a huge breakthrough because it did not cause all the side effects of the animal extracted insulins (muscular degeneration at the injection site, reactions to impurities in the insulin...)
To backtrack, Banting and Best had been working on the extraction of insulin for years until they succeeded in saving the life of a young man in 1922. At the time, the only method for keeping a diabetic alive was the "starvation diet" which usually included whiskey, wine and a tiny amount of meat. This usually resulted in diabetics turning into what could be recognized as a concentration camp victim look. This diet usually succeeded in keeping an adult diabetes sufferer alive for a couple years but children died much, much sooner.
http://manybooks.net/titles/eckmanr2605826058-8.html

Homemade insulin is very difficult to make and requires animal pancreases, lab equipment and sterile techniques to avoid tainting the results.

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=33479

Now, we have all kinds of human recombinant insulins. The biggest problems are the long term storage of the insulins and the cost. Since they are human recombinant DNA insulins, they usually have a 2 year "shelf life" if kept in the refrigerator. Yes, you can reduce the amount you might need by eating less, eating fewer calories, eating roots that contain inulin - which by the way are NOT a substitute for insulin. They are a starch that doesn't digest the same way as most starches so diabetics can eat them and their blood sugars are not affected as much), taking bitter melon or gymnema sylvestre to REDUCE the amount of insulin needed. But keep in mind it is only to reduce the insulin not replace it. Insulin is a hormone and everyone needs it to digest sugars in the body. All foods including protein, fats and carbohydrates eventually turn to glucose (sugar) as glucose is the only thing the body can use.

It is frustrating as a type 1 diabetic myself to realize in a SHTF situation I may not live for a very long time. I always have at least a years worth of insulin stockpiled and have all the herbs I mentioned. But, eventually my stockpile will run out. This is a source of concern for me as I am very prepared in so many other areas... but this is something that very likely will not have a solution.

[FelicityJ]

I've found that there are several natural products that can help to control blood sugar levels. Nuts, Blueberries, and good ole fashion exercise can help. And although these can help your diabetes, they cannot cure it. It takes a combination of diet and medication to lead as normal as possible life. Unfortunately, medication can be expensive and it's terrifying having to depend on the health care industry for support. The best thing you can do is decide to trust that there are still some good people out there.

[PeakOiler]

My overnight fasting glucose level this morning was 98. This afternoon it was 104. I'm Type II. I take glipizide and Janumet (metformin) every day. My 7-day average is 108. That corresponds roughly to an A1C of 5.4.

I was diagnosed with diabetes August 2010. Unfortunately, I suffered a neuropathy in my left thigh from the diabetes. I'm still in constant pain 24/7, but the neurontin (gabapentin) masks the pain pretty well. Without the pain-killers, my pain level would be 9-10 on a scale of 1-10. The pain has recently been slowly subsiding over the last few months. I'm hoping the nerve is healing finally since the glucose is under better control. B vitamins (esp. B12) are known to promote good nerve health. I'm taking that supplement.

Without big pharma, my life would be a lot worse, if I'd even be here.

I've posted before in another thread that diabetics will have a much shorter lifespan if big pharma disappeared. There is no cure for diabetes.

Best of luck to all those who got a bad roll of the genetic dice...

I've also posted before that I should have started a thread on diabetes in the Medical Issues forum, so members can participate in a discussion of dealing with diabetes. I still might...

"THE Diabetes Thread"

There are a lot of good resources on the web. One of my bookmarks is
http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Health-and-Fitness:Diabetes

Example:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')aresthesias Are a Familiar Problem for Diabetics - Here's What You Can Do About Them
by Martha J Zimmer
Paresthesias are the medical term for tingling and numbness of the nerves, and they are an annoying and sometimes painful complication of diabetes. But don't just resign yourself to paresthesias. Chronic low levels of pain are one of the causes of depression, and they can keep you from wanting to exercise [or working in orchards and gardens]. Neither chronic pain nor depression is going to help you get to the goals you've set on your diabetic journey.

[PeakOiler]

Inspired by SaitoHawkeye's Intro post, I thought it was about time to start this thread.

My plans for the future radically changed when I learned I had diabetes. For example, I wish I had planted 13 pecan trees instead of 13 peach trees.

Here's a web site that has a lot of good info for diabetics. Explore it.

http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Health-and-Fitness:Diabetes

More later.

Edit: How will you deal (or are dealing) with diabetes and its complications in a post-peak world?

[Fishman]

Peak, depends on the type. Type 1s will have the toughest time since they require insulin. The good news is we made due with beef and pork insulin for a long time. Type twos,many will be cured with major weight loss, some of the meds are fairly cheap. It should be many years before these basics collapse. Unfortunately getting older and sicker will be much tougher. Peak, take good care of yourself

[Alan Cain]

And given metformin's many ancillary benefits (reducing the incidence of colon cancer, and others), getting a prescription for it and taking it regularly may make you healthier all around, diabetes or not. Good luck to you, and stay optimistic. A LOT of research is going into diabetes and into pancreatic biology. Diabetes may be well controlled on a regular basis SOON, and diet, exercise and regular doctors' visits give an excellent outcome. Consider using a Nurse Practitioner; their outcomes are superior to MDs, because they spend more time on average with their patients than MDs do (for the most part - there are exceptions).

[Keith_McClary]

The top 1% have their share of diabetes and other medical conditions. They will want to keep insulin and other drugs and treatments available, and, of course, they won't want to pay for the pharma factories all by themselves, so they will sell the products to the bottom 99% for a price.