Alternative Medicine And Diabetes – Does It Help?

I often describe diabetes as our Zen. It keeps us in the present. You can’t live in the past, and you can’t plan too far into the future all the time.

You have to always be on top of diabetes, and deal with that number you have in your monitor at that time – not at a later time.

I still perfect my art to think like a pancreas and predict blood sugar while balancing a tight rope, juggling fire balls as I whip up the perfect soufflé.

Armed with information, some days I still feel like I need a magic 8 ball when the school nurses ask me how they should bolus at the next blood sugar check. As awesome as they are, even the three of us cannot crack the code sometimes. No two people with diabetes are alike, and for a person with diabetes, no two days are alike!

Alternative Medicine and Diabetes – Nice Idea, But…

I continue my open door policy around advocacy and education.

Alternative medicine and diabetes are sometimes mentioned by well-meaning but ill-informed people. Just last week someone asked me why I had not tried homeopathy or ayurvedic medicine to help with my son’s diabetes.

It was a naive question. This person had good intentions. However, she asked me if I was afraid of alternative medicine for managing diabetes.

Ha!

Little did she know I am a huge fan of acupuncture for myself, and other alternative therapies. Despite our life with needles we hate, the irony of how relaxing other needles are is crazy.

What I do fear is the reality of sending my child quickly into DKA if I actually took him off insulin and relied on an alternative treatment.

Sadly, Alternative Medicine Cannot Cure Diabetes. There Is No Cure.

So for any of you spammers out there who post the latest and greatest cure in my Twitter and Instagram account with your cute cat pictures, I am not falling for it.

For my friends who send me miracle cure links in WhatsApp, be sure – be very sure – if there were an alternative medicine cure for Type 1, I would not be writing this.

I do appreciate you thinking of us, really I do. But these posts are just a harsh reminder that there is a lot of misinformation out there, and there is no cure.

Insulin is Critical for People With Diabetes

Between the crazy questions about managing my son’t diabetes, the compliments still make me very proud. The latest was about how well-adjusted my son is. He is only eight, and was diagnosed so young that he was robbed of a carefree life “before” he remembers.

This has enabled us to be matter of fact about diabetes and just get on with it. Which is what I love about him. Diabetes just is. Yes, we have our challenges, but we deal with it. It does not stop him, and I am not planning to let that become a thought.

As for the person who asked me if I was afraid of alternative medicine – I calmly looked her straight in the eye and answered, “No. My son would die if I took him off insulin.”