Tackling Diabetes - Ben's Story

diabetes health health optimisation mindful drinking optimisation smart drinking vice optimisation May 27, 2019

Epic shoutout to one of the 101 TOkens Crew and a one on one client!

Ben has Type 1 Diabetes and shared the below with me the other day.

It's significant because 415 million people have diabetes worldwide.

1.2million of those are Aussies

And 16,400 people died from it in 2015.

They are crazy numbers.

And to clarify as I did not know:
Type 1 - means you are born with it.
Type 2 - You induced it due to lifestyle choices.

Feel free to forward this on to anyone you know who could benefit from the information.

I've deliberately not used Ben's last name for confidentiality, but he has said for anyone who would like a copy of the medical report for the right reasons, we can send direct in good trust.

Enough from me...

Here's the man himself:

I’m Type 1 diabetic. The significant marker in a Diabetic’s life is the HbA1c test, a long term indicator of Blood Glucose Control (or lack thereof).

Just after we kicked into action (with the smart drinker bootcamp), I was due for an Endocrinologist (Diabetes Specialist) visit.

That was 5th December and the result was 7.9%. It’s not a good result.

In fact, I had had that the previous test also. It’s an indicator of poor control if I’m being perfectly honest.

Fast forward 5 months and my HbA1C is 6.8%. In my meeting with the endocrinologist today, as usual, we debriefed on what had changed. It’s important to be able to identify changes in behaviours that move this result. Being such a significant move, my doctor was particularly interested.

To put this into context, to drop to 6.8% from 7.9% is Rockstar like in the diabetes world.

Risk of complications with a long term HbA1c in this region drops by 30-40%. It makes the angel dust of a 6.5% reading attainable.

Back on point, the only two things I have changed are this:

1. I don't drink milk based coffees anymore

2. I started the Smart Drinker Bootcamp with you.

It’s impossible to discount the significance of the first point, at 2 or 3 coffees a day, I have reduced the carb load (and associated gut inflammation apparently) by a significant amount.

However, as an anecdotal event, it’s also impossible to discount the impact the awareness of alcohol consumption and the journey we've been on there has had.

You're doing some seriously great work in this sample space of one.

Imagine that, creating alcohol awareness at the same time as you battle one of the biggest health drains on the Australian Society.

Talk about a body of work being proud of.

Hope you are well and thank you.

Ben

P.S Ben still loves a drink, he just does it with intention now.

I reckon we can lift the sample size and I'd love to attempt to assist friends and family of the Token Crew, so share the love.