Diabetes - Curing and Controlling

With the possible exception of when they tell us something we do not want to hear, most of us consider anybody with the title "Doctor" in front of their name to be fairly intelligent. More wise in the subject at hand than we happen to be, hopefully. For instance, I break my leg, and Dr. John Doe strolls into the room to make things right. While he is busy doing whatever it is he has to do to set the bone, I, through gritted teeth, happen to ask, where did you go to medical school, Doctor? Oh, I have my doctorate in mathematics from Ivey Covered University. Great school, but wrong doctorate.

That being said, let's get to the subject of curing and controlling diabetes. What I know about diabetes is what I got from researching the subject. To research a subject, go to the experts, the people doing the research, and the people who work with diabetics.

When they are told they are cured, most people believe the condition is gone. No more problems. I had chicken pox, but it is gone, and I have been cured. I never have to worry about chicken pox again! But, when I look up cured in a medical dictionary, I come up with, "remission of signs or symptoms of a disease especially during a prolonged period of observation" (Merriam-Webster, thank you) as one of the definitions. You tell somebody with a life threatening condition that the disease is in remission, they are happy and hopeful. Happy that the disease is not spreading, and hopeful that it will go away - forever! Once it is gone forever, everybody says that they have been cured - as we understand it. Listen, just about everybody has heard about the old chicken soup cure. You get a bad cold, get plenty of rest, drink plenty of fluids, and oh, yes, have plenty of mom's chicken soup. I guarantee you, if you follow that advice, in just about a week, your cold will be gone. Since nobody has bothered to patent it, to my knowledge, anyway, I think that I will, and we'll call it Buckley's miracle cure for the common cold. How about, with the exception of the chicken soup, we just call it following the doctor's advice on not making a bad condition worse.

Which brings us to controlled. The same source I used for cure, Merriam-Webster, and I am going to the medical dictionary, tells me that one of the definitions of controlling is "to reduce the incidence or severity of especially to innocuous levels (control an insect population) (a vaccine for controlling outbreaks of cholera." (please note, the <> symbol was changed to () for editing purposes). Such as, if I follow the proper diet, get some exercise, and do what they tell me to do, things will be better.

A long time ago, I was sitting on a rock in the woods and just watching the time go by. It was the middle of winter, and being in New England, it was really cold. Still, it was wonderful. After a while of contemplating nothing in particular, who should appear? It happened to be the most beautiful red fox I had ever seen. I was down wind, and the fox had no clue I was there. I just sat there watching this animal do its fox thing. While admiring that animal and the surroundings I was in, almost as an epiphany, I wondered how anybody, including myself, could doubt the existence of God. From that point on, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that God existed. That is called an act of faith. That being said, if I now told you to do such and such, and you will be cured of your diabetes, you would probably toss some well turned phrases in my general direction.

I believe in God, but unless he personally, or one of his certified heavenly representatives, tells me to stop taking medicines I need for my medical condition, do you think I am going to stop taking them without, say, talking to my doctor, first?

So far, most of the cures I have seen come down to doing what the medical people and dieticians have been telling you to do all along. I have a million things for you to buy at my blog, and I wish somebody would actually do so, but guess what - your health comes first! Keep in mind that there is a difference between curing and controlling.