It’s all converted to sugar anywaze!

 Food & Wine, My MCL  1 Response »
Nov 202010
 

So why shouldn’t we be able to eat all the sweets (sugar) we want?

The only good thing about the rain is I have plenty of time to peruse the internet, and find something worthwhile and relevant to post, instead of the useless dribble I’m usually posting. And today is one of those days.

Sugar has always been a concern for me, especially after having my first [and only] PET scan. In order to determine if there is active cancer, a glucose mixture is injected into you, which then migrates to the cancer cells, and is picked up on the scan. So I decided sugar must be bad, and it would be best to severely restrict my intake of sweets in an attempt to stop the progression of my MCL.

Now if you love sweets, especially chocolate, like myself, you’ve probably discovered no matter how good your intentions are, restricting sugar intake can be a daunting task. I did it for quite awhile, but now I pretty much ignore that advice. What’s more important, I soon came to believe after learning the body converts all food to sugar, is how much you consume rather than what you consume.

Of course I’ve always believed eating a balanced diet is still very important. I just never really understood why, up until now that is.

And it just so happened, as I was perusing the myeloma message board this morning, I came across a discussion on exactly this topic, sugar and it’s effects on cancer. A lot of people weighed in with their two cents, and their anecdotes (which I mostly ignored because I have [had] my own beliefs), but one comment stood out, because it provided a clear, understandable and very plausible explanation of why eating a balanced diet and avoiding simple carbohydrates is very important, which I have copied below.

While it’s true that all digestible carbohydrates end up as single sugars when they are metabolized, it is important to remember that your body must metabolize those sugars.  Therein lies the problem.

Complex carbohydrates, are metabolized at a slower rate than simple sugars.

When complex carbohydrates are metabolized, the slow release of simple sugars gives your system time to adapt to the increased levels.  This means that your insulin levels rise gradually, and your cellular uptake of sugars also happens gradually.

However, when you dump a large amount of simple sugar into your system, your insulin level has to rise quickly to accomodate it.  Then what happens is that your sugar levels plummet suddenly, and you are left with excess insulin.  It is important to note here that recent publications indicate that insulin is an important growth factor for myeloma cells.  Anyway, when this is repeated over and over again, as when we consume cookies, cakes, candy and pop [soda], your systems ultimately tire out and you get Type II diabetes.

The rapidity with which sugars are released into your system is known as the “glycemic index”, and there’s a lot written about it…………….

So I’ve decided to take another look at eating a more balanced diet, and avoiding the simple carbs (sugars) as much as possible. I’m just not so sure how easy that’s going to be.

I also discovered this article, from my Facebook group Patients Against Lymphoma, on the consumption of wine, which provides some consolation. At least I won’t have to give up my passion for wine.

And on a final note, it looks like my friend Stacy, who had brain surgery (previous post), is coming along fine. She is gradually being weened off the coma inducing drug, and is starting to respond to stimulus, but there is still a way to go.

Always expect the unexpected

 General Health, My MCL  4 Responses »
Nov 222008
 

Last month when my oncologist said she was going to order additional tests that hadn’t been performed for awhile, my only concern was with the PSA test.

I had heard having an enlarged prostate typically produces a false positive, which then requires a very painful biopsy to confirm the diagnosis of prostrate cancer. Assuming Certain I had a large prostrate, because of frequent trips to the bathroom, seemingly mostly at night, I was fully expecting to see a high reading, and kept thinking about this painful test, and what to do about it.

But NO, my PSA didn’t turn out to be a problem at all. It was only .73 ng/mL, which based on everything I’ve been able to glean from the internet is a relatively low number. (The lab did not provide a reference range for my test.)

So then what is causing those frequent trips to the bathroom at night, you might ask?

Could it be the blood glucose level of 106 mg/dL, I reported in my previous post, may not be a lab error after all, especially considering my glycohemoglobin level came back at 6.1% (reference range 4.8 – 5.9%)? It turns out, frequent urination is a symptom of diabetes. Fortunately, I don’t have any of the other symptoms, except for maybe some irritability, which Becky may attest to. :)

So now that prostrate cancer and a heart attack don’t appear to be a problem, (total cholesterol was 137, HDL 42, LDL 87, and triglycerides were 41), all I have to worry about is my lymphoma, and the possibility of diabetes.

This just sounds like a wake up call to me, to do what I haven’t been doing for the last few years. It’s time to commit to eating healthier, eliminating all sweets, and increasing the intensity and lengths of my workouts.

I plan on being under 150 pounds by this time next month (currently I’m just under 160 pounds), after which I expect a marked improvement on both fronts, but also not forgetting the title of this post. And hopefully I might even see an improvement in my cycling.