Ron Swanson – A Serendipity in the War Against Diabetes

December 30, 2011 By: Ron Swanson

Ron Swanson

This morning, Makai, my giant Anatolian Shepherd and I were walking….

So begins most of my blogs in the Bad Golfers Association blogsite. However post-surgery Mak and I could not take our early morning walks since he is strong enough to pull me as if I was on roller blades and the Doc forbids me to lift more than 5 pounds or do anything more strenuous then Kegel exercises. This, it turns out, produced a serendipity of the first magnitude.

Mrs. Commish, who has been allergic to mornings for as long as we have worked together, suddenly was put in a position whereby she had to get up early and open our studio. Since she had to get up and the dog still needed to be walked, I suggested that if she would walk Makai I would walk along with them. Surprisingly, she thought this was a fine idea.

Our walk is a simple one, down one driveway, along the road for a bit and then up our other driveway. The whole circuit is just a tick under half a mile but there is nothing level about it. In fact, the uphill climb at the end is so steep that we never used to drive up it in our MGB back in the day.

As Mrs. Commish had to adjust to my schedule I found that I had to become more aware of her mornings, also. Each morning before going on the walk she has to test her blood because she is a diabetic. So far she does not have to take insulin but her morning readings are always too high (about 180). If you do not live with a diabetic than this probably doesn’t mean anything to you but briefly she should try to keep her blood sugar readings around 100. Just after she was diagnosed a little over a year ago, her readings would often be above 200 but with Metformin and awareness she has gotten her levels below 140 throughout the day, often below 120, but her morning readings were always so high that insulin shots were being considered.

Mrs. Commish has maintained the same exercise regimen at Brick Bodies in Timonium that she has done for several years with just the addition of our morning walk. Within two weeks we noticed a significant improvement in her morning blood readings. Now her readings have dropped to the low 120’s and sometimes even in the high 90’s, practically normal. Diet had not influenced these morning readings before as the liver seems to “dump” hugh amounts of glucose or whatever it dumps into the bloodstream as a precursor to making sure your body has enough fuel for waking up and beginning your day… to get you ready to break your fast (hence, breakfast).

The simple addition of an early morning walk is allowing her body to work more normally without the need for injections. This has been a wonderful serendipity for us that came about because of my inability to “pull my own weight.” If you have someone fighting diabetes maybe you can encourage them to just include an early morning walk. Besides the air is crisp and just observing the circadian rhythms of your body and Mother Nature herself produces a calming of the soul.

Meanwhile, in another six weeks or so, I look forward to resuming workouts involving more than Kegeling or balancing on one leg.

Happy New Year to one and all and may you realize the benefits of all of those New Year’s Resolutions you thought about making.