As for the other issue, the difference is that people have A LOT of ignorance when it comes to diabetes, and it doesn’t help at all when diabetes I and II are simply lumped together like that… Type I is an autoimmune disease that can impact a completely healthy, thin person who takes care of him/herself. Type II is more of a metabolic disease that is the result of a lack of exercise, obesity, and an unhealthy diet. Many doctors agree that the naming is quite misleading, as the two versions of diabetes are very different beasts.

Write back if you have something constructive to say, otherwise go take a hike or go for a run.

Let me tell you about my favorite rocker singer, Marvin Lee Aday,
AKA “Meat Loaf” who weighs over 300 pounds and is diabetic.

I can identify with Meat Loaf because I’m also diabetic, and I weigh
about 305 pounds, and my height is only 5 ft. 6 in.

He was born September 27, 1951 so he’s only three days older than I
am since I was born September 30, 1951

Marvin Lee Aday was a singer and occasional actor who, for reasons
never definitively answered, recorded under the name Meat Loaf. In
all likelihood a childhood nickname, the tag stuck, and many puns
followed as the performer — who tipped the scales at well over 300
pounds — became one of the biggest chart acts of the 1970s before
enjoying a commercial renaissance two decades later.

Meat Loaf is one of my favorite rock singers. I remember when he was
on the stage singing Like A Bat Out Of Hell. He came out on the stage
looking like a big fat Opera singer and dancing around moving his big
body and beads of perspiration broke out on his plump round face. He
looked sooooooooo cool man!!! He’s one heavy dude!

While doing some research, I found out that not only is he diabetic
but he also suffers from a rare heart condition known as Wolff-
Parkinson-White syndrome.

It is not cause by his obesity but rather Wolff-Parkinson-White
syndrome (WPW) is a syndrome of pre-excitation of the ventricles due
to an accessory pathway known as the bundle of Kent. This accessory
pathway is an abnormal electrical communication from the atria to the
ventricles.

The incidence of WPW syndrome is between 0.1% and 3% percent of the
general population. While the vast majority of individuals with WPW
syndrome remain asymptomatic throughout their entire lives, there is
a risk of sudden death associate with WPW syndrome.

Sudden death due to WPW syndrome is rare (incidence of 0.6% percent
and is due to the effect of the accessory pathway on tachyarrhythmias
in these individuals.

Meat Loaf, known for his size (at times over 300 pounds) and manic
stage presence has suffered from a number of health problems and
injuries. Reportedly he has had at least seventeen concussions. His
most recent problem was during a November 17, 2003, performance at
London’s Wembley Arena. He collapsed of what was later diagnosed as
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. The following week he underwent a
surgical procedure intended to correct the problem.

Back in 1978 he fell off the stage and broke his leg during a concert
at Toronto. He finished the tour in a wheelchair.

He also sufferes from depression and anxiety. He had a very tuff
childhood and growing up as a fat kid, he was often tormented by his
peers. As a child he was clumsy and uncoordinated. His father called
him Meat Loaf because he was so fat.

Also, his father was an alcoholic and was very abusive toward Meat
Loaf and his mother. When he was 15 years old, his mother died of
breast cancer, and sometime after his mother’s death, one evening his
father flew into a drunken rage and came after Meat Loaf with a
butcher knife.

Yes, indeed! I can identify with Meat Loaf. At 5 ft. 6 in. I weigh
about 305 pounds myself. I too had an abusive stepfather who would
beat up on my mother and I whenever he was drunk.

When I was only 15 years old, my weight went up to over 200 pounds,
and I then outweighed my old man by more than 20 pouunds although I
was three inches shorter.

I believe that abuse during childhood can bring on obesity, and
continued emotional stress can contribute to diabetes. Getting fat is
nature’s way of protecting one from physical injury. I find that being
fat feels very comfortable because it feels so soft and warm like a
big hug!

Like Meat Loaf, I too am diabetic and suffer from anxiety and
depression so I know where he’s coming from. I’m also very clumsy and
uncoordinated and I fall very easily, but so far I managed to avoid
serious injuries.

I’m also artistic and creative. I like to do oil paintings, and I’m
building an N Gauge model railroad on a 5 x 8 foot layout which is
wired to run four trains. I also enjoy singing. I use to sing at the
Karaoki and I would do songs by Niel Diamond, Cat Stevens, Simon And
Garfunkle, Pink Floyde, and of course Meat Loaf, my favorite.

My heart really goes out to Meat Loaf. While he looks like a big
strong person, he is very fragile both physically and emotionally.

But then many of us obese persons like me are rather fragile in so
many ways. That is why so many obese people tend to be rather docile,
nonaggressive and gentle creatures. We are also more sensitive to
pain both physical and emotional.

That is probably why we feel hunger more intensely and why it takes
more food to ease the pain of the hunger we feel.

Also junk foods are more harmful to us fat people. So, we need to get
back to natural foods and even if we can’t lose weight we’re still
better off.

Oh! By the way, Meat Loaf is also a vegetarian. Despite his stage
name, Marvin doesn’t like to eat meatloaf.

But eating a vegetarian does not necessarily guarantee that one won’t
become obese. In fact a diabetic can still gain weight on a
vegetarian diet because of the carbohydrates.

I should know from personnel experience, because I once tried a
vegetarian diet, and I still gained weight.

====================================================================

Obese people more sensitive to pain

Obese people may be more sensitive to pain than people who aren’t
obese, a new study suggests.

All of the older adults who completed the study had osteoarthritis of
the knee, a disease that causes inflammation and extreme pain in the
knees.

Participants were given a mild electrical stimulation on their left
ankle to measure their pain reflex. The stimulus was given before and
after the participants took part in a 45-minute coping skills
training session that included a progressive muscle relaxation
exercise.

The obese patients showed a greater physical response to the
electrical stimulation than did the non-obese people, both before and
after the training session. This indicates they had a lower tolerance
for the painful stimulation despite reporting, in questionnaires,
that they felt no more pain than non-obese people.

“The relaxation procedure helped both groups cope with pain,” said
Charles Emery, the study’s lead author and a professor of psychology
at Ohio State University. “Additionally, our tests showed both groups
had higher physical pain thresholds after the relaxation session. But
the obese participants still had a lower threshold for tolerating the
pain.”

Emery and his colleagues presented their findings on March 4 in
Denver at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.

The researchers wanted to see if coping skills training, including
progressive relaxation techniques would help people with
osteoarthritis to better cope with the pain that the disease can
cause. Also called degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis affects
more than 20 million people in the United States.

But they were particularly interested in seeing how the obese group
responded to pain; according to Emery, a small number of studies have
looked at pain sensitivity in obese people, but many of these studies
report conflicting results.

“Some studies say that obese people are more tolerant of pain, while
other studies say they are less tolerant,” Emery said.

About a third of the study’s 62 participants were obese. Researchers
determined who was obese based on participants’ body mass index (BMI)
scores, which relates height to weight. Obese patients in this study
had a BMI greater than 30 but less than 35. (Scores higher than 35
are considered morbidly obese.)

The participants underwent two rounds of electrical stimulation –
once before, and once after a 45-minute training session where they
learned different ways of coping with pain, including instruction in
progressive muscle relaxation therapy.

The electrical stimulation came from an iPod-sized device that
delivered a slight electrical shock to a patient’s sural nerve, a
nerve that extends along the ankle and into the calf. This kind of
electrical stimulation causes sensations of tingling and mild pain in
the lower leg.

The researchers determined the body’s response to sural nerve
stimulation by measuring the reflex of the lower leg muscles that
surround the sural nerve. When the brain senses pain, it sends a
message to the body to contract and move the muscles in order to get
away from the source of the pain.

“This kind of evaluation is in some ways a more objective way of
measuring the body’s response to pain, as opposed to simply asking
someone if they feel pain,” Emery said.

But the researchers did ask participants how much pain they felt.
Participants completed questionnaires about anxiety and pain
perception after each round of electrical stimulations. All
participants, obese or not, reported that they felt less pain after
the relaxation session than they did before.

Yet results of the sural nerve stimulus test showed that the obese
participants did not tolerate the painful stimulus as well as the non-
obese individuals.

“Our findings show the importance of looking at objective as well as
subjective measurements of how the body responds to pain stimuli,”
Emery said.

Emery conducted the study with colleagues from Ohio State, Ohio and
Duke universities.

From Ohio State University

===================================================================

Poor Meat Loaf. His life has been so full of pain, yet despite all
that he is a very jolly fat person with a great sense of humor

Some of the songs he sings are a reflection of his own life.

Here is the lyrics to one of his many songs.

—————————————————————–

Objects In The Rear View Mirror My Appear Closer Than They Are.

The skys were pure and the fields were green,
and the sun was brighter than it’s ever been
When I grew up with my best friend, Kenny,
we were close as any brothers that you ever knew

It was always summer and the future called
We were ready for adventures and we wanted them all,
and there was so much left to dream,
and so much time to make it real

But I can still recall the sting of all the tears when he was gone
They say he crashed and burned, I swear I’ll never learn,
why any boy should die so young

We were racing; we were soldiers of fortune
We got in trouble but we sure got around
There are times I think I see him peeling out of the dark
I think he’s right behind me now, and he’s gaining ground

But it was long ago, and it was far away
Oh God, it seems so very far,
and if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car

And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
They are

And when the sun descended and the night arose
I heard my father cursing everyone he knows
He was dangerous and drunk and defeated,
and corroded by failure and envy and hate

There were endless winters and the dreams would freeze
No where to hide and no leaves on the trees,
and my father’s eyes were blank as he hit me again and again and again

I know I still believe he’d never let me leave, I had to run away
alone
So many threats and fears, so many wasted years,
before my life became my own

And though the nightmares should be over,
some of the terrors are still intact
I’ll hear that ugly, coarse, and violent voice,
and then he grabs me from behind, and then he pulls me back

But it was long ago, and it was far away
Oh God, it seems so very far,
and if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car

And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
They are

[Instrumental solo]

There was a beauty living on the edge of town
She always put the top up and the hammer down,
and she taught me everything I’ll ever know,
about the mystery and the muscle of love

The stars would glimmer and the moon would glow
I’m in the back seat with my Julie like Romeo
And the signs along the highway all said
Caution! Kids at play!

Those were the rights of spring and we did everything;
There was salvation every night
We got dreams reborn and our upholstery torn,
but everything we tried was right

She used her body just like a bandage
She use my body just like a wound
I’ll probably never know where she disappeared,
but I can see rising up out of the back seat now,
just like an angel rising out of a tomb

But it was long ago, and it was far away
Oh God, it seems so very far,
and if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car

And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are

She used her body just like a bandage
She used my body just like a wound
I’ll probably never know where she disappeared,
but I can see her rising up out of the back seat now…

—————————————————————

Oh yes indeed!

If life is like a highway, then the soul is just a car!

My soul is a big Mack Truck!!!

Besides the ADA web site, there are a fair number of online support resources… see what you can find:

ttp://www.google.com/search?q=diabetes+online+support