scary – Divabetic

01/09/202301/09/2023

What Scares You Most About Diabetes?

We’re talking about what scares you most about diabetes on this Divabetic podcast with musical inspiration from the band Old Dominion.

Do diabetes and its diabetes health-related complications scare you?

How does this fear affect your life and daily self-care, and more importantly, what do you do about it?

Small amounts of fear might energize you and get you to pay attention, but the threat has to seem manageable. If there’s nothing you can do, and the future looks too awful, you will tend to give up and try to enjoy the time you have left.

Of course, some fear of diabetes is justified. The complications of diabetes are terrifying. So are the effects it can have on your family and your finances. Fears are stressful, and stress isn’t good for diabetes.

Fear increases insulin resistance and blood pressure and interferes with the body’s natural healing systems. It makes it harder to enjoy life.

So what do we do about it?

By taking better care of ourselves, we can reduce stress and even feel better about our diabetes lives.

Guests include Poet Lorraine Brooks, Best-Selling Author Dr. Lori Shemek PhD, Diabetes What To Know founder Ansley Dalbo, podiatrist Dr. Michele Summers Colon DPM, gynecologist Dr. Andrea Chisholm MD,OB-GYN, Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES, Jackie Mernit Muhlstock, and Mama Rose Marie.

Throughout the podcast, we feature music from Old Dominion’s Happy Endings album. Most tracks are upbeat, stay close to their debut album’s sound, and deliver a dozen radio-friendly songs. The album debuted at No. 1 on Top Country Albums, selling 31,000 copies and 41,000 equivalent album units when streaming and track sales are included.

10/19/202210/21/2022

Divabetic Shares A Halloween Ghost Story with Listeners

Enjoy this special Divabetic podcast for Halloween.

Our regular Divabetic podcast featuring an all-star lineup of guests resumes next month for National Diabetes Awareness month in November.

Did you know that Halloween’s sugar consumption will likely surpass the $36 billion record set in 2021?

Understanding how food affects blood glucose is the first step in managing diabetes. But many people, especially at Halloween, when candy is so plentiful, love to give their unsolicited advice about what we’re putting in our mouths.

Many assume that eating candy causes diabetes.

There are two main types of diabetes – type 1 and type 2 diabetes. We know that sugar does not cause type 1 diabetes because our immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells in our pancreas.

Type 2 diabetes is a combination of insulin resistance and pancreatic failure. That said, there’s enough shame and blame already associated with diabetes that it’s too much when someone feels obligated to tell us what we can and cannot eat.

One of our Facebook community members, Rosemary R., perfectly summed up our feeling on the subject:

“Having had diabetes since 11 years old and now 73, you do the math. It is only a part of my life, not the whole. I live a full and varied life. I tell new folks I meet about my condition to alert them to the possibilities of “lows” & how to help me.

Essentially, it’s my responsibility to look after myself just like anyone else. My only beef is that sometimes those “in the know” tell me, “oh, you are a diabetic and shouldn’t be eating that.”

My choice and my responsibility. I own my actions, taking care that any risk is managed and minimized and that I don’t become a burden to family, friends, workmates, the community at large, and the health system. My mantra has always been “moderation in all things.” I thank those who accept me for who I am. I lead a full and satisfying life.”

The American Heart Association suggests limiting adding sugars to no more than 100 calories per day (about 6 teaspoons or 24 grams) for most adult women and no more than 150 calories per day (about 9 teaspoons or 36 grams of sugar) for most men.

You can also access the Van der Voort Ghost Story using this QR code:

10/18/202210/18/2022

Central Park Ghosts: The Van der Voort Sisters

I’m excited to share a sneak peek of my upcoming multi-media Halloween display. The theme of Halloween Street, where I work, is ‘Ghost Live”. Since we’re so close to Central Park, I researched ghosts in Central Park and found out about these two Victorian Sisters, Janet and Rosetta Van der Voort, who haunt the Wollman ice rink. I was so inspired by their story that I decided to produce a short story about them and recruited a few talented friends to help.

Janet and Rosetta Van der Voort, born in the 1800s, were two wealthy sisters whose father rarely let them leave the house unaccompanied. The one place they were allowed to visit was Central Park’s Wollman Rink, where they went ice skating in the winter. The two sisters never married, were lifelong best friends, and died a few months apart. Since their death, their ghostly spirits have been seen periodically skating together on the Central Park Pond, wearing the same red and purple outfits they wore over 100 years ago.

Divabetic pays tribute to the sisters’ spirits, hoping to encourage you to indulge in the creativity associated with Halloween instead of candy.

Halloween’s record-breaking sugar consumption and its detrimental effects on overall health are scarier than any ghost story. It’s been reported that consumers gobbled up a record $36.9 billion in candy, gum, mints, chocolate, and other confections in 2021.

High intakes of dietary sugars in the setting of a worldwide pandemic of obesity and cardiovascular disease have heightened concerns about the adverse effects of excessive consumption of sugars.

Credits Producer: Max Szadek Writers: Max Szadek, Wendy Radford, Lorraine Brooks

Voice Actors: Max Szadek, Verna Henry, Lauren Ricks Graphic Designer: Max Szadek

Articles on the Van der Voort Sisters:

Van der Voort sisters/Ephemeral New York, click HERE to read.

Surprising Central Park, Nature’s Pied-a-Terre, click HERE to read.

Central Park’s Skating Sisters, click HERE to read.