OCDiabetic

Low carb living with type 1 diabetes

House of Representatives vote to cap insulin prices at $35

Insulin is the poster child for high drug prices in the US. I’ve written before about diabetics crossing the border into Canada to pick up affordable insulin, even though the original patent sold for $1 when the marvel was first discovered. Several stories about diabetics dying after rationing their insulin have garnered a lot of…
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What is too much choice?

The other day I was standing in the supermarket trying to get some toothpaste. I wanted regular toothpaste, which is hard to find these days. Instead, it’s triple flavor, advanced whitening, charcoal filters, and so on. I got really confused and fiddled several tubes before I selected the magic crystals because they sounded the coolest.…
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The holy grail of 7%

Reuters recently published a well-researched article series on America’s losing battle against diabetes. It was an interesting read, especially the second part that claims that the pharmaceutical industry is responsible for the ‘aggressive’ HbA1c targets that doctors promote amongst their patients. The target level is an HbA1c of 7% (53 mmol/mol) which corresponds to an…
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Mushrooms for breakfast

For the past two years, I’ve had the same thing for breakfast: a two-egg omelette with 50g of cheese. It’s perhaps not that strange that I got fed up and started to feel queasy just thinking about eggs. The reason it’s a good idea to eat the same thing every day if you have diabetes is that you can take the same insulin dose with predictable results. In the morning…
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Raisins spike blood sugar

With my morning coffee, I read an article on how raisins ‘may even help you to maintain healthy blood glucose levels’ and it left me irritated. On the forum I frequent, grapes go under the name of sugar bombs. They are, just like raisins, an excellent treatment for hypoglycemia when they quickly drive up blood…
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Below 7: Chicken curry

I’ve been eating a lot of curries lately. Might have something to do with the season. It’s grey and gloomy which makes it the perfect time for comfort food. After all, what’s better than a spicy stew on a rainy autumn day?  Since I’m on a low-carb diet, rice and regular naan bread are off…
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Covid-19 vaccination with type 1 diabetes

After putting it off for ages, I finally went and got my vaccination. I work the weekends in a bar and the government just brought in new restrictions requiring that you check the vaccination certificates before serving customers. It seemed bizarre that I would be the one interacting with everyone inquiring about their health status…
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The controversial scientist

The other day I came across an interview with Dr. Denise Faustman. She’s an associate professor at Harvard University and the director at the Immunobiology Laboratory at Massachusettes General Hospital, where she’s worked since 1985. Also, she is someone who thinks differently with a vaccine-based approach as a cure for type 1 diabetes. Her research…
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Diabetes in prison

Yesterday I started rewatching Prison Break since there’s a lack of new and interesting shows on Netflix. Protagonist Michael Scofield pretends to have type 1 diabetes in order to get access to the infirmary when he needs daily insulin injections. It made me wonder about how it works in the real world. Can you keep…
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Below 7: Fried halloumi and tabouleh

In another life, I worked a few months in a Lebanese restaurant. The owner was a crazy cokehead who cheated on his wife with a nineteen-year-old waitress, but the food was good. Lockman the chef made the most brilliant dolma (rice-filled grape leaves) and sawar (bulgur with fresh vegetables in a tomato sauce). While diabetes…
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