Submitted by Robert Hoffman
I am a future senior with something in common with many seniors today: I have diabetes. This is a tale of three diabetics: my stepfather JJ, myself, and my son’s father-in-law. This is also a tale of two morals: listen to what the medication says to the body, and take a hike.
Six years ago I found JJ (my stepfather and then 62) crawling on the floor of his recreational vehicle trying to locate the Formica dining top, but he could not. To him, the world was upside down. I was inexperienced with the nature of blood glucose levels and how they affect our behavior. I could only stand and keep the cell phone handy as I watched my mom manage the paces of a sugar crash. I cradled his warm body as he lapped at orange juice until he came around and wondered what was for dinner. JJ had overmedicated.
Six months ago I was diagnosed with diabetes. When the announcement was made, I knew the jig was up. Twenty years of gaining “only three pounds a year” finally caught up with me. The grandson of Depression Era Survivors was not going to starve! Eat everything and then have dessert. Have another burrito. Immediately I dropped processed sugars from my diet, suffered through the days of change and came out trimmer and healthier. I made five visits to the nutritionalist and eased my way into an active life, walking a mile for my morning coffee and taking the long way home along the riverbed.
Six days ago my daughter-in-law informed me that her father had died, a man she’d only seen three times since she was 8 months old – but the sting still hurt. He was 59, hardly senior material. For twenty years he declined his medication. One evening last week he leaned over his easy chair, expulsed, drooled, and died.
Diabetes can never be reversed. In addition to a proper level of medication, it’s also important for the diabetic—of any age—to have a monitored regimen of activity.
The benefits of physical mobility and movement are well documented for seniors, up to and including building muscle mass (using barbells and weights). Proper weight, healthy diet and a greater sex life all have their roots from the 45-minute cardio walk. But the diabetic gets an extra benefit: exercise is invisible insulin. Along with protein, fiber, and water, exercise helps keep blood sugar levels – well – level. And it does it at an alarmingly fast rate.
Get the senior walking and he or she will be more inclined to pay attention to other factors such as medication and dieting. The body knows what it needs. Walking exercises the the limbs, the joints, visual coordination, the heart, and the soul.
JJ learned to manage his medication, my son’s father-in-law would not. I’m convinced that JJ’s busy bee ways have limited the amount and severity of his episodes. As for me, I’ve learned how important it is to take a hike!
