Insulin Pump Review: Medtronic Minimed Paradigm

25 years--that's how long I've had Type I diabetes.  In that amount of time, I've taken over 37,000 injections, and performed well over 100,000 blood tests.

Most people whom I've met who have an insulin pump prefer it greatly, and would much rather use it than go back to injections.  With a free trial period, I thought I'd finally give it a try.

Rather than take a long-lasting insulin once per day, combined with several short-acting injections prior to meals, the pump is designed to drip insulin slowly into your system.

HOW IT WORKS
There's a reservoir contained in the pump which is filled with short-acting insulin (in my case, Humalog) that is slowly doled-out by a screw which pushes the base of the reservoir throughout the day.

There's an infusion set, which consists of a flexible, plastic cannula that's injected just under the skin, attached to medical tubing, which is then attached to the reservoir.

You prime the pump, pushing air bubbles and insulin through the medical tubing, which you then connect to the cannula, which is attached to your skin somewhere on the abdomen or lower back.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK
The obvious problems that immediately appear are three-fold:

1) What do you do when your kids want to wrestle, or they jump on you where the cannula is inserted?

2) What do you do with the medical tubing? It's easy to catch on your jacket, a doorknob, or just about anything else.

3) Isn't the injection site going to hurt when I'm lying face-down on an exercise ball?  And what do I do with the pump while jumping? I anticipate this pump pulling my shorts down if it's clipped to the waistband.

I'll attempt to find a solution to all 3 and report back.  It is only Day 1, so I'll let you know how it goes after more time using the device.

Vitamin D & Health

Until recently, I've never been much into supplements.  The only supplementing I did was protein and the occasional multi-vitamin, if it was cheap enough.  My mad fitness-scientist cousin, PJ, has long preached the value of high-quality vitamin supplementation and food.  If it's grass-fed beef, he'll eat it, but if he suspects the cow had a runny nose and got some penicillin along the way, forget it; he'll take the ocean salmon instead.

He recommended Vitamin D to me because of research recently which suggests the RDA of 200-600 IUs per day is far too low.  I thought back to Nutrition 201, remembered that D is one of the fat-soluble vitamins, meaning you CAN overdose on it, because fat-soluble vitamins are stored, and not simply excreted the way Vitamin C, Vitamin B, et al are.  But then I remembered that RDAs aren't based on much more than committees' ideas of what's probably a good idea, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Vitamin D is a heavy lifter in building bone, immune functions, preventing inflammation, and is actually a precursor hormone, and not a vitamin as we have historically understood them, and its purpose and benefits are only recently being discovered.

I've been taking 10,000 IUs per day for about 5 weeks, and I had a meeting scheduled with my doctor on Monday of this week.  Monday morning, I was making a list of things to remember to ask him about, and one was the increasing spots of vitiligo on my hands and upper arms.  I looked down at them to see how much they had grown (they had increased significantly in the last 2 years), and they were gone.  Where previously they were easily viewable, I now can't even see them.

I mentioned that to my doctor later that day, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Have you been taking Vitamin D?" We chatted about what acceptable levels of supplementation are, and he said for most people, he's been recommending around 50,000 IUs per week, and if for certain diseases, he'll recommend 50,000 2 or 3 times per week.

I feel better since taking the bigger doses of Vitamin D, and my vitiligo disappearing can't be attributed to anything else I can think of, but I really don't want to overdose, either.  They had to take a blood sample, since the lab lost my previous sample, and I got a call yesterday from the doctor's office saying they had also run a Vitamin D level test on the sample.  Ideal levels are between 30 and 100 ng/mL.  With 10,000 IU per day for 5 weeks, my level was 52.

I don't seem to be at risk of overdosing. And based on my increased energy levels of late, there's no doubt we'll find plenty more benefits of it.  So talk to your doctor about it, and then do your own research!

Paula Deen & Diabetes

Paula Deen came out of the closet as a Type II diabetic, as was reported several places online recently.  Why didn't she tell people long ago that she had the "disease"?  She said, “I wanted to wait until I had something to bring to the table."  What she brought to the table was a big endorsement from a company that makes diabetes drugs.


Rather than buying a pair of running shoes, joining a gym, or purchasing a Chuck Norris special, she chose the way of far too many Type II diabetics:  Medicine.

Speaking with my own doctor yesterday, he mentioned that the number of Type II patients who don't need medication is in excess of 65%, and I suspect it's even higher than that.

I've never understood why spending hundreds of dollars on medicine is preferable to eating better food, and exercising a little more.  And I do mean a little--it takes so little exercise to go from a medicated Type II to a non-medicated, nearly-healed Type II...How much?  Try 1 mile of walking, 3x per week.

That's right, walking.  You don't have to even trot.  If you get your butt on the road and walk a mile thrice per week, the odds are very high that you won't need your medicine any more.  One mile three times per week is the bare minimum any non-handicapped individual ought to be able to accomplish.

I'm not sure even how something can be called a disease, when keeping yourself reasonably fit means it goes away.

Muscles Can Stimulate Brown Fat Activation

We've known about brown fat for a little while, and how it acts to turn into, and burn, old-fashioned white fat.  Now they've found the hormone that does it, and guess what!

Muscles cause the hormone release.  Go figure--using your muscles help burn more fat!

Check out the news story here.  Then go burn some fat.

Sketchers Gorun Shoe Review 2

1 week after the first run, I did it again.  My calves had quit hurting, and I was able to walk down stairs by the 4th day, so I figured it was time again.

I repeated the identical course of the first run, and found something interesting--my lower legs began hurting after only about 1/3 of the way into the run. I was determined to see it through, however, and kept going.

When I returned to the starting point, the calves were bulging, the glutes were seriously feeling it, and I anticipated another 3 days of calf pain.  But it didn't happen.  No calf soreness the next day!  What I did notice, however, was that it hurt more during the run, but that could be due to my current weight.  I currently weigh 222, so the altered, forward-leaning stride probably contributed to that.

All in all, seems to be a decent shoe, but I'm interested in trying it off-asphalt now.  I'll keep you posted.

Until then, here's your weekend assignment:

1| Find a set of stairs outdoors, and sprint up them twice, and run up them twice.
2| Put your feet on an elevated surface, and do pushups.  But don't do regular, boring pushups; take 4 seconds on the way down, and 2 seconds on the way up.  Do 50 of them beetween now and Sunday night.
3| Accumulate 5 minutes of jumping jacks.
4| Accumulate 3 minutes of crunches.

5| Do at least 100 jump squats between now and Sunday night.

Shoe Review | Sketchers GoRun

New technology or idea?  I'm in!
After hearing tell of the new Sketchers GoRun, I thought I'd give 'em a whirl. I like to stay cutting-edge, and barefoot-style running shows promise from an injury-reduction standpoint.  While not technically a barefoot-style runner, a shoe idea similar to the one from Sketchers is, in my opinion, a better alternative.

Think about it--you're designed to run, but without shoes, over soft terrain, you wouldn't ka-chunk down on your heel bone and roll to the toes, as you do in 99% of running shoes. You'd be forward more, and you'd be more careful where and how you stepped.

But we live in cities, and trails are not always soft.  The human foot isn't designed to run long distances on concrete or asphalt, so the idea of the GoRun shoe is a good marriage of cushioning technology meeting better anatomical ideals.  Plus, you don't cut up your feet on broken glass or rocks.


Could potentially reduce injury due to improved form
I'm what they call a "heavy runner," meaning I weight over 160 pounds, which is the average that most men's running shoes are designed for.  As I weight 220, most running shoes break down quickly, and the joints begin to feel it in about 5 weeks.  My hope is that by altering my running style, as required by the shoe, I'll be better equipped muscularly to handle running.

So I ran 1.35 miles (according to my Nike GPS watch) in my new Sketchers yesterday. I knew I had better go for shorter runs until I get a handle on the new style.  I was right!

Notes from the run

First thing I noticed was that if I was going to run heel to toe, it would take a lot of effort. The Sketchers are designed to encourage you to hit mid-foot and propel with the toes.  They do exactly that, and after 400 yards, I could tell there was significantly more gluteal activation than normal shoe running.

Second thing I noticed was that I wanted to step farther forward, almost as a prance, but still very heterosexual in nature.  It seemed faster and better, and as though my body wanted to run this way, but since I had been running heel-to-toe for years, it would take time.

Third thing I realized was that the next day my calves were going to feel it.  I was off by about 23 hours--after my run I hit the weights, and when I was getting into my truck, both calves cramped up from the sudden relaxation, and I had to really jump around to solve it.

It was only my first run, and I may discover that I hate it, but for now, it was as I expected:

1) There's a learning curve, both mentally and kinesthetically, that will reduce your distance at first
2) Your butt and calves are going to have to catch up to where they should have been all along

But there's nothing wrong with cutting your distance during a cardio routine. You just have to up the intensity, and these shoes will do exactly that.

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If you purchase 8 sessions up front, it's only $200.  Yep--$25 per session.  Unheard-of prices on personal training!  Also comes with a customized fitness program for you to follow.

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Call Russ today to schedule an appointment.  Before you train, make sure to fill out the Health History Form & attached Waiver.