31 Days of Divabetic Podcasts, Day Twenty One

Divabetic (Divabetic.org) presents a month-long showcase celebrating 10 years of diabetes podcasting. Each of the featured podcasts spotlights our favorite guests, topics, poems, games and/or musical inspiration. Enjoy!

On Day 21, we’re spotlighting Divabetic’s 50 Shades Of Gray: Diabetes & Aging podcast from December 2015.

Aging is inevitable — even botox can’t turn back the clock permanently. However, you do have a choice over how you’ll spend your twilight years. Managing diabetes in the golden years presents a variety of challenges, ranging from increased insulin resistance and weight gain to sexual health issues and depression.

As we age our bodies gradually become less adept at using glucose from the bloodstream — a condition known as glucose intolerance, according to Diabetes Self-Management. This may be due to having too much body fat, which interferes with the muscles’ ability to use insulin. As glucose intolerance decreases, insulin resistance increases with age.

Fortunately there are better tools for managing diabetes and preventing diabetes health-related complications today. Older people with diabetes have the opportunity to live longer than ever before.

Guests include Dr. Andrea Chisholm MD, FACOG, OB-GYN, “How To Fight FATflammation!”,  Author  Lori Shemek PhD, “The Secrets to Living and Loving With Diabetes” and “Sex and Diabetes” Janis Roszler, MS, RD, LD/N, CDE, FAND  2008-2009 Diabetes Educator of the Year (AADE), Humorist and Author “The Sweet Blessing: My Adventures in Diabetes” Trisha Porretti RN, BSN, CDE.

Throughout the podcast we will be playing selected songs from Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas’ album courtesy of SONY Music.

 

Our monthly podcasts are dedicated to Music Lovers living with, at risk and/or affected by diabetes. We aim to be the epicenter of the circle of care, a link between patients and their health care providers, a translator of clinical speak and a bridge between denial and acceptance, fear and confidence.

Divabetic was inspired by the late music legend, Luther Vandross and created in 2005 by Max ‘Mr. Divabetic’ Szadek, who, as Vandross’ assistant of 14 years, witnessed his boss, mentor, and friend struggle in silence and solitude with the diabetes and its related complications. Since its inception, Divabetic has presented outreach programs in 15 major U.S. cities, reaching hundreds of thousands of women, their families and health care professionals.

Experience more of our GLAM MORE, FEAR LESS philosophy at divabetic.org

Mariah Carey Has Weight Loss Surgery, We’re Wondering Why?

Are body shammers responsible for why singer, Mariah Carey chose to undergo weight loss surgery?

According to a source, Mariah Carey‘s insecurity about her weight caused her to elect to have the gastric sleeve surgery, which shrinks the size of the stomach so patients eat less.

“She always fluctuates and it makes her upset,” said a source close to Mariah Carey. “She lives in denial about it; she has the tags cut out of clothes, so she can be blissfully unaware of her size.”

Today we are all surrounded by idealized images of beauty more than ever before so it’s not surprising that even someone as successful as Mariah Carey would feel insecure about her image.  Image shown on social media can create expectations that are impossible to meet, leaving us feeling inadequate and ashamed about our own looks.

One way to address body dissatisfaction is to change the way we think about our bodies, shifting the focus from evaluation and critique to care and appreciation.When we’re focused on how our body looks, we’re often less aware of how it feels—and therefore less in touch with signs of hunger and fullness, feelings of pleasure and pain, and even the sensation of our heartbeat. Research suggests that self-compassion is associated with lower levels of self-objectification, the tendency to habitually take an observer’s perspective on one’s own body rather than experiencing it from the inside outWe will be discussing self-compassion on November’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast with guest, Dr. Beverly S. Adler PhD, CDE.

Do you feel Mariah Carey’s weight loss surgery was necessary?

After all, body mass index or BMI is an important measurement to determine if you qualify for the surgery. Vertical sleeve gastrectomy was traditionally reserved for highly obese patients. If you have a BMI higher than 40 or are at least 100 pounds overweight you are considered extremely obese (which Mariah was not strictly judging from recent photos).

Vertical sleeve gastrectomy isn’t for the casual dieter hoping to lose a few pounds. Instead, the procedure requires an assessment that focuses on physical and mental considerations to make sure you can succeed with weight loss following the surgery. While the surgery may change the size of your stomach, it’s up to you to change your eating habits.

The surgery is a permanent change to your stomach, which means you must carefully consider your options before undergoing this surgical option.

Gastric sleeve surgery removes 70% of the stomach where the hunger hormone ghrelin is produced.

Diabetes remission rates after sleeve gastrectomy are also very high (more than 60%) and, in some studies, similar to results seen after gastric bypass.

Most patients who have gastric bypass or a sleeve gastrectomy experience weight loss and changes in their gastrointestinal tract. Weight loss surgery causes profound changes in the incretins — hormones in the gastrointestinal tract that cause insulin to be released. These changes lead to significant improvement in type 2 diabetes and can cause long-term changes in the pancreas that causes diabetes to go away.

Let’s consider that Mariah Carey may not have elected to have weight loss surgery for purely ‘vanity’ reasons.

Mariah Carey had gestational diabetes when she was pregnant with her six-month-old twins Monroe and Moroccan in 2011. It’s well documented that after having gestational diabetes, you are at higher risk for type 2 diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that all women with a history ofgestational diabetes have a two-hour glucose tolerance test at six weeks and at least every three years after giving birth.

The less severe type 2 diabetes is before sleeve gastrectomy, the greater the likelihood patients will be disease free afterwards, according to new research presented here during ObesityWeek 2014, the largest international event focused on the basic science, clinical application and prevention and treatment of obesity.

Whether or not she had weight loss surgery six weeks ago for health  and/or vanity reasons, the GRAMMY winner showed off a slimmer figure at her hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood last Wednesday.

A second source tells ET that Mariah feels “much better about herself” now, adding, “this is a new beginning for her.”

We’re talking about ‘Weight Loss Surgery & Diabetes’ on Diabetes Late Nite podcast with music from Etta James.

Etta James is a Grammy Award-winning singer known for hit songs like “I’d Rather Go Blind” and “At Last.”

Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938, in Los Angeles, California, to a 14-year-old mother, Dorothy Hawkins, who encouraged her daughter’s singing career. James would later say, “My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I’d like to think I did that.” James never knew her father.

Etta James was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993, prior to her signing a new recording contract with Private Records.

Etta James underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost over 200 pounds. The dramatic weight loss had an impact on her voice, as she told Ebony magazine, “I can sing lower, higher and louder.” Guests include Poet Lorraine Brooks, the Charlie’s Angels of Outreach, Dr. Monique Renee Rolle DPM, Catherine Schuller AICI, CIP, Susan Greenberg Weiner MS, RDN, CDE, CDN, and Mama Rose Marie. Prize giveaways courtesy of Earth Brand Shoes, Dr. Greenfield’s Diabetic Foot Creams, Cabot Cheese and Nu Naturals.  LISTEN NOW