Diabetes? Me? 21 January, 2007

It’s always handy to have those gadgets at hand to test your blood pressure and blood glucose levels.

Yesterday and today I tested my glucose level since PCOS sufferers are closely linked to hyperinsulinism and diabetes.

Yelp! My sugar levels were high… too high for a normal person. I was momentarily stunned because I had never thought of myself as diabetic.

Did a few more tests today and I think I fall into the borderline category (I hope). I’ll continue to monitor more and see what happens from here. I don’t think I’m in the “serious serious” diabetes stage yet. My heart just sinks to learn that I might be diabetic or pre-diabetic.

But at the same time, I want to thank God for this testing and the doctor’s discovery of PCOS. This means that even if I do have early stages of diabetes, I’m in a position to do something concrete about it. I can control my sugar levels by watching my diet very closely.

This means no more cakes and heavy carbohydrates. No more sugary drinks and desserts.

I guess my ultimate aim is to manage this condition such that it never deteriorates and my blood sugar level after meals will always be within the normal range.

Someone told me that with good diet and exercise management, a pre-diabetic need never develop into full-blown one. But without proper managment, the condition can escalate or deteriorate very rapidly to full-blown diabetes.

For now, I continue to take refuge in the Lord and ask Him to guide me through all my fears.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.”
Ps 139:14-16

Popping pills 18 January, 2007

I’ve never been much of a pill popper, but these days, I feel like a druggie.

• 2 metformin pills a day (need to increase to 3)
• 2 packets of chinese TCM brown pills a day
• 1 packet of chinese TCM unbelievably vile bitter mint powder a day

Sigh…  i wonder how much more my system can take. My insides feel all tender from this drug overdose. Even my saliva feels somehow different.

But then I think of patients who suffer from cancer and have to undergo chemotherapy and I know how blessed I am to only have to endure such little medication.

Managing Fear 17 January, 2007

Last Sunday during worship in church, a thought came to my mind.

Why not ask the Lord to help my body cope with the side effects of Metformin?

An inexplicable surge of faith arose in my heart at that moment and now on hindsight, I think it was the Holy Spirit prompting me to take a step to trust God in this aspect of my life.

So that’s what I did.

I lifted my hands in worship and asked simply, “Lord, please help my body to adapt to metformin. “

That evening, the normal nausea and queer feeling in my stomach persisted when I took the medication.

However by Tuesday, I noticed that the discomfort from the side effects had substantially decreased.

Now I’m on to taking metformin twice a day.

Sometimes I do feel a very real fear that the nausea might come back anytime and that the gradual decrease in discomfort was merely an anomaly. I feel that fear and doubt even now as I’m writing this entry and I’m just ever so sensitive to the slightest sensation my tummy experiences.

I guess that’s when I need to look at God’s promises rather than allow my fear to magnify.

It’s like I’m in a dense forest with towering foliage all around me. I can choose to look straight ahead at the destination with faith that I can make it, or I can choose to look sideways at the menancing thorns & vicious carnivorous plants threatening to encroach my path.

Like a magical land where fear will feed the reality you perceive – if I look at the thorns for too long, my fear will feed them and they will begin to grow bigger and invade my pathway, bringing back the discomfort and nausea.

But if I choose to ignore them, trusting that the Lord is the one who takes me along this path and He will clear the encroaching thorns, then I disallow fear from taking over my life.

Not that fear isn’t there… but I manage it and keep it in its place by focusing on God through prayer, worship and being in His presence. The moment I take my eyes off God, then fear will magnify. So I manage it consciously.

It’s a matter of self-will really. But thankfully I have a Solid Source of help that I can anchor my will on

positive results 17 January, 2007

I weighed myself yesterday.

Lost 2 pounds!

(1 kg = 2.2)

Looks like metformin is really working

(not) Thinking 16 January, 2007

Got a call one night from an old friend, an old tutor friend with whom I have a love-hate relationship.

We spoke for a while and I got tired. Told her I had to go.

But she pressed on and asked me about my attempts to conceive.

Out of the kindness of her heart, she shared with me the possibility that there might be an idol in my life that was preventing God’s blessings from flowing to me. She said that Satanic forces could be at play. And then she went on to share some spiritual visions & prayers a church member had regarding another member’s attempts to conceive.

What a thought to plant in a person’s mind!

I grew quite angry with her as she went on and on about spiritual forces preventing me from getting pregnant.

“Thanks and bye.” was all I finally said before hanging up.

How thoughtless can someone get? But more importantly, the planting of such thoughts, without really understanding our situation is a very irresponsible thing to do.

What if I took her seriously and started getting psychologically paranoid about the “spirits” around me? Wouldn’t that affect my health even more?

What’s worse is, this isn’t the first time she has unloaded such spiritual mumbo jumbo on me. The last time, if I remember correctly, she saw visions of coffins associated with me. I think the issue then was something to do with my romantic love life.

I think it will be a while before I accept her calls again.

PCOS Cause 14 January, 2007

Eversince the doctor told me I had this problem, I had been scouring the Internet for more information on the link between PCOS and insulin, especially now that I’m on metformin, a medication known to diabetics.

I finally found my answer in this book.

The vast majority of women with PCOS have very high insulin levels in their blood which arises from a condition known as insulin resistance and Insulin Resistance is at the root of all PCOS symptoms.

What is Insulin Resistance?
Insulin Resistance is when the cells of the human body are no longer sensitive to the insulin hormone. Insulin is like a car that has the duty of delivering sugar in the blood to body cells. However, sometimes for unknown reasons, body cells begin to be resistant or insensitive to insulin and thus the insulin cannot “dock” on the cell to deliver the sugar. The body senses the continual high levels of sugar in the blood and produces even more insulin to transport the sugar. You can see that the problem lies with the sensitivity of the cells to insulin, rather than the insulin itself.

But how does Insulin Resistance cause PCOS symptoms?
(I attempt to explain in simple terms even though the full picture is a lot more complicated) 

The cells in the ovaries are unique from the ones in the rest of the body. Ovary cells do not develop insensitivity to insulin, even though all the other body cells can become insensitive to insulin. So as more and more insulin is produced by the body to cope with the high blood sugar levels, excess insulin is now flowing around in the blood and the ovary takes in all these excess insulin. Insulin promotes active metabolic activity in ovaries and thus more insulin means the ovaries work unabated to produce more and more testosterone and estrogen, upsetting the normal balance in the female body.  These excess insulin and sex hormones also work to stimulate the brain to release higher doses of Lutenising Hormone (LH) and LH further stimulates the ovaries to produce even more sex hormones, exacerbating the situation. It is the LH that also accounts for the unnatural multiple cysts found in ovaries of PCOS sufferers and for the bad quality eggs produced. It is these multiple cysts (seen only in ultrasound) that give rise to the name Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

Excess sex hormones also cause other physical problems like weight gain, thinning hair, facial hair growth etc. 

So if Insulin Resistance is at the root of PCOS (and also the root of diabetes), the path to manage PCOS is to manage Insulin Resistance.

And that’s what this book is about!

Keke… going off to read more now.

Metformin blues 13 January, 2007

It’s my 5th day on metformin – 500mg per day – and my stomach doesn’t seem to like it too much.

After I take the medication, my stomach turns cold and mild nausea takes over.

I think it’s certainly going to take a while for me to bring the dose up to the required 1500mg per day.

Birth pangs 12 January, 2007

I just had 3 slices of pizza, 5 potato wedges and a chicken wing for lunch. It was a company treat. How could I resist

But by medical standards, today’s lunch is considered to be really toxic for PCOS sufferers.

“…High intakes of carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates (ie. sweets, white bread, white rice, etc.) will quickly turn to sugar and cause elevated levels of insulin. Since high levels of insulin can cause a multitude of problems for women with PCOS, a better diet would be a low glycemic index diet…”

Hmm… I’m quite sure my pizza was made with refined carbohydrates.

A PCOS diet is actually very similar to a diabetic’s diet. Low consumption of carbs and sugar. Load up instead on fresh vegetables and moderate amounts of white meat. Exercise is an aboslute must too.

Looks like the battle for healthy reproductive capabilities begins with correcting my palate and dietry preferences.

Sigh… the birth pangs have begun.

PCOS – more than a fertility problem. 11 January, 2007

PCOS is increasingly seen as an endrocine problem that affects fertility, rather than a purely fertility problem.

———–

The two key biochemical markers of PCOS are that sufferers make too much insulin and too much testosterone (or androgen). Researchers are now certain the two are linked and a study just published in the US journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has suggested this link is a gene called follistain which has two telltale functions: It plays a role in the development of the ovaries and is needed to make insulin.

Testosterone, which is believed to be made by these tiny ovarian cysts, is carried in the bloodstream by a substance called sex hormone binding globulin. Think of it as being like a car transporter without which there are runaway or “free” testosterone molecules, which then bind in the wrong places, including under the skin where they cause acne and excess facial hair. One of the symptoms of PCOS is a tendency to put on weight – and when your weight increases, the amount of sex hormone binding globulin, which is made by the liver, decreases. This explains why reducing your weight is so crucial in controlling and even reversing PCOS.

Insulin works to control sugar levels in the blood. Many women with PCOS are known to be resistant to their own insulin. It is, say Dr Carey, as if the cells have gone deaf and can no longer pick up messages from the pancreas, which makes insulin, about how much is needed. When this system breaks down, the body reacts by storing more of the calories from your food, especially carbohydrates, as fat. You put on weight, even though you are eating the same amount. Excess insulin also acts on the ovaries to make more testosterone – which is the very last thing you need. It is also the reason the contraceptive pill, which makes the body even more insulin resistant, is an ill-advised short-term solution.

You can manage the symptoms and even reverse PCOS by changing your diet to eat less carbohydrate and to eat smaller, more frequent meals. This avoids sudden rushes of blood sugar and so helps control insulin production and prevents weight gain. Protein has been shown to reduce the rate of glucose absorption and stabilise insulin production, so eat a little protein with each meal. Cut out all refined carbohydrates, which means all cakes and biscuits, and take exercise to maintain optimum weight. The good news, if there is any, about having slightly higher levels of testosterone is that it means the body responds well to exercise and will thank you for your improved physique.

The biochemistry of PCOS is fascinating – but even more gripping, says Dr Carey, is the realisation that here is a genetic condition where, although there is no cure, sufferers can control the outcome through diet and lifestyle: “It is a condition where women really can use their environment to interact with their genetic programming and create a positive outcome.”

Taken from What really works

My weight problem 11 January, 2007

Weight is something I’ve been struggling with eversince I was a teenager.

Every year I would hear well-meaning school nurses, PE teachers and doctors tell me that I need to shed some fat in order to minimise my risks of obesity-related diseases. I know they mean well and I have seriously tried but the journey is a rough one.

I’m rather pleased that my weight is no longer going up as it used to. In fact I had managed to drop a few pounds but it’s a stable plateau from here (give and take a few pounds). But I’m hardly near my ideal weight or BMI despite my exercise regime. It takes me about a week of exercise and strict diet to lose 1 kg but I can gain it all back with a single Macdonald’s meal.

On Monday the reproductive specialist I saw explained why it was so difficult for me to lose weight. My PCOS problem was causing my ovaries to produce an excess amount of oestrogen and oestrogen has the effect of causing the body to retain almost 100% of the food taken in. He told me frankly that he doubted I was going to shed significant amounts of weight given my condition.

Well at least there is a hormonal reason that I can attribute my weight problem to. People tend to look at fat persons and think “What a slob. If only she would exercise.” I guess I’m living testimony that exercise doesn’t always work 100%. There are other aspects to the body’s chemistry & complex makeup to consider when it comes to weight loss.

No one actually dies from PCOS but it is the accompanying effects of PCOS that kill a person; accompanying effects such as obesity and diabetes II. Gulp.

A woman with PCOS is, according to researchers, seven times more likely to develop diabetes than a woman of the same age and lifestyle who does not have the syndrome. She is also now known to be 7.4 more times at risk of a heart attack and four times more likely to suffer from high blood pressure. The first two of these conditions are major killers in the Western world – which is why, finally, PCOS is getting the attention such a common condition deserves.

Apparently PCOS also explains why my hair is thinning so quickly. PCOS sufferers also have an excess of androgens circulating in their bodies and it is these androgens that are causing my hair to thin and drop – a condition known as androgenic alopecia.

Although it is not pleasant to receive news that I suffer from PCOS, at least it explains some of the bodily changes I’m going through.

Hmm… now if only I can link my unexplained eczema to hormones as well…chuckle…