Lemon Juice

Lemons are not high in carbs, one lemon has about 5.4g of carbs.

But bottled lemon juice concentrate has zero carbs. Make zero carb lemonade with a large splash of the concentrate and a couple of packets of Equal in a glass of water.

Chocolate, Science, and Hershey's

I've written about the health benefits of dark chocolate before.

What I didn't know until recently was that much of the health benefits of dark chocolates became known from publicity of a study that was sponsored by Mars.

Kind of makes me wonder how true some of this stuff actually is. I don't really trust any of them.

But I like chocolate anyway so I'll pretend it's all true.

I buy baking chocolate, which is kind of bitter. I cut it up in small bits, add a couple of packs of Equal and a slice of margarine (to soften it up) then melt it in a micro wave on low power. I eat it by dipping a rolled up low-carb tortilla.

I'm confused.

I've always been under the general impression that Vitamin C was a good thing although it's overhyped and it's difficult at times to separate hype from fact when talking about Vitamin C, particularly when talking about mega-doses of Vitamin C.

The Linus Pauling Institute (the main source of Vitamin C hype) says

Cardiovascular diseases (heart disease and stroke) are the leading cause of death in individuals with diabetes. Evidence that diabetes is a condition of increased oxidative stress led to the hypothesis that higher intakes of antioxidant nutrients could help decrease cardiovascular disease risk in diabetic individuals. In support of this hypothesis, a 16-year study of 85,000 women, 2% of whom were diabetic, found that vitamin C supplement use (400 mg/day or more) was associated with significant reductions in the risk of fatal and nonfatal coronary heart disease in the entire cohort as well as those with diabetes

That looks good. But then they follow up with this

In contrast, a 15-year study of postmenopausal women found that diabetic women who reported taking at least 300 mg/day of vitamin C from supplements when the study began were at significantly higher risk of death from coronary heart disease and stroke than those who did not take vitamin C supplements

That looks bad, at least for postmenopausal women with diabetes. It causes them to conclude

The significance of these findings is not entirely clear, but they suggest that there may be a subpopulation of people with diabetes who will benefit from antioxidant therapy while others may not benefit or could actually be harmed.

and

Since vitamin C intake from foods was not associated with increased mortality from cardiovascular disease, there is no reason to limit the intake of vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables.

What might those Vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables be? The most hyped is oranges, which is also pretty high in sugar. So that one might not be the best choice for diabetics. Two good choices are cabbage and peppers, especially red peppers. The dark green leaves from Chinese cabbages are particually good choices.

Diabetes and Depression - Cause and Effect

This short article poses the question, Does Diabetes Cause Depression.

No, it doesn't.

It might trigger an episode of depression, it might aggravate an existing condition, but it's not a cause of depression.

Depression isn't about events in your life, it's about a fundamental brain related disorder in thinking which leads to depressive behaviors, depressed moods, etc. It's not caused by bad potty training and it's not caused by other illness. Some of the episodes of severe depression symptoms can be triggered by life events, but that doesn't mean the life events are the cause.

Diabetes might make a depression worse. It can actually help though. Whether it helps or hurts depends on how you respond to your diabetes. If your able to respond to it pro-actively (something that can be hard to do if you're already depressed) then it might actually help a depression. The diabetes itself won't help it but the pro-active response can.

One of the best things you can do to self-treat depression is to just do things. Exercise helps, a diet high in things like dark green vegetables and fish helps. Accomplishments help.

Diabetes and depression

Depression is much, much more than just a mood disorder. It's an abnormailty in the way you think and in the way you behave, not just the way you feel. Because of that it's deadly.

A recent study observed

What this study shows is that either alone or in tandem with a chronic physical illness, depression takes a huge toll. And yet we live in a society in which too many people suffer in silence and many insurance plans don't cover treatment for depression as adequately as they do treatment for physical illnesses. This is both unfair and unwise — research has shown us that the sooner depression is treated, the less likely a second or even a third episode will occur.

It can be a very big problem when depression is accompanied by diabetes. Diabetes requires a personal attention to detail in lifestyle that can be hard to accomplish when you're depressed.

Viagra

Erections are about blood to the penis. I have diabetes, which constricts blood flow. More recently I have developed hyper-tension, which further screws up blood circulation. And I have depression which has some sexual effects.

All-in-all that's not a good combination.

I've discovered that there's a small subset of men with ED who are resistant to Viagra, primarily those with a combination of diabetes, hypertension, and depression.

Sigh. That's a developement that's really helpful in controlling depression.

Update:
An interesting post on the precursers to Viagra

Sunday, Oct 14

Bulk trash day is tomorrow, Monday. I have an old air conditioner, an old large room heater and an old gas stove along the side of the house that need to be hauled off (it's kind of a redneck flavored yard). It's about 150 feet from the pickkup spot on the street.

I'm still having stamina problems. It took me four trips to get it all hauled out to the street. I do have a light weight two wheeled dolly that was of some help. But it just wore me out. This getting old and sick crap isn't a lot of fun.

Update:
Saw my new primary care physician (I've recently tranfered my care to a new VA hospital, I live between two of them). He didn't seem to be worried about he swelling in the ankle. He said some of the meds I take might cause that.

He gave me some new meds, changed some of them, I'll try the change for a month and go back and see him again.

There's a problem in that he's Vietnamese and I didn't understand much of what he said. So I'm just going to have to sit down on the internet with each drug and figure out what's what on my own. I'll be posting about that later.

Low-carb potatoe pancakes

1 medium turnip, grated
1 medium white onion, grated
1/4 cup roasted peppers, chopped
I just use what's in the garden, a mixture of cayenne, jalapeno, pablano, and banana peppers.
1 egg
2 serving spoons of low-carb flour
1/4 cup garlic, chopped
1 package 4-cheese instant mashede potatoes
splash of cooking oil.
water, enough to retian a mashed potatoes texture

Mix well.

Form into patties and cook in hot skillet, until dark brown on each side.

Serve with sour cream (or french onion dip) topping.

Oct 1, Mon

Sep 31, Monday

I'm writing this after midnight on Monday.

I took some pills this morning, and just took tonites dose.

I don't remember what I ate today, but I have been eating. I just put some defrosted pork chops back in the refrigerator, I was going to cook something but changed my mind, I'm having some chicken bouillon instead.

I've been sleeping off and on all day.

I've gone outside and puttered around in the yard a few times, I've been okay with breathing today, but my right ankle and calf have had some pain pretty much all day.

Alertness has been bad all day. I havn't played any poker online but have plaed some FreeCell soliatare game and lost more sessions than is normal. I've lost probably 4 out of 5 and a typical pattern is more like winning 4 out of 5.

I did find some checks I had and put them in an envelope to mail in a deposit. I've had a couple of small checks sitting around for over a couple of weeks without my doing anything with them. So I'm not totally out of it, but still not at an intellectual peak right now.

Maybe Tuesday will be a better day.