# Whataya know about Type 1 diabetes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 11, 2017, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939 "2017-03-11T16:39:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939/41 "2017-03-14T03:55:19Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > No problems with the kidneys. I’m not certain there was any connection between her diabetes and her osteoporosis. I heard it mentioned in passing but not by a doctor. > > When I said she tested with urine, I mean she had little strips that (I presume) she would pee on to see the chemical reaction, which she did at home in the normal course of micturition\*. I’m not sure what method you are referring to. > > \*OK, the software auto-corrected what I had (micturation). If the verb is “micturate” why is the noun form “micturition?” Inquiring minds, and all that. Urine testing only gave somewhat of an estimate and not the current blood sugar status. Before the strips came out (not sure when but it wasn’t all that long ago - maybe 50 years?) people had to place a measured amount of urine into a test tube with an eyedropper, drop in a reagent tablet, cork the tube, place it in boiling water for a few minutes, and then compare it to a color chart. Sugar usually doesn’t show up in urine until the BS goes over about 200. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939/42 "2017-03-14T04:02:18Z")
Here’s a link to a paper about the history of home glucose testing. The first home blood glucose meter came out in 1970. Clinistix (the first home urine test strip) was first marketed in 1957. Before that, they had Clinitest and probably others. [http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.468.2196&rep=rep1&type=pdf](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.468.2196&rep=rep1&type=pdf) Now to go read that paper. It looks interesting. Dextrostix, which used color comparison charts instead of a meter, was launched in 1965. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939/43 "2017-03-14T14:25:00Z")
My friend was in her 30s when one day she got on the bus to work as usual and then couldn’t remember who she was or what she was doing there. Luckily she had a card from work in her bag and called them and they could come get her. She was in the hospital at least a week and was diagnosed then. She gave herself shots for years and eventually got a pump which improved things a lot. Now we get to say “um, you’re beeping” when she tunes it out. ---
**Author:** ![2Bits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e95f7d/32.png) [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939/44 "2017-03-14T14:35:39Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Here’s a link to a paper about the history of home glucose testing. The first home blood glucose meter came out in 1970. Clinistix (the first home urine test strip) was first marketed in 1957. Before that, they had Clinitest and probably others. > > [http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.468.2196&rep=rep1&type=pdf](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.468.2196&rep=rep1&type=pdf) > > Now to go read that paper. It looks interesting. > > Dextrostix, which used color comparison charts instead of a meter, was launched in 1965. It’s curious that this paper is from 2012 and references the failed “Glucowatch.” [http://www.diabetesmonitor.com/glucose-meters/what-happened-to-the-glucowatch.htm](http://www.diabetesmonitor.com/glucose-meters/what-happened-to-the-glucowatch.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939/45 "2017-03-14T15:00:05Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Hell no! You know me 😃 That was the one thing that kept me up at night when I was diagnosed - will I ever be able to eat bread again? My family’s chicken dumpling soup? All the wonderful carby things I loooove? I don’t WANT to eat only to live! > > Nine years later, I know the answer to “can I eat \” is “yup.” > > A healthy diet for T1D is the same healthy diet for anyone - eat your bread and sweet stuff but don’t live on it. Eat more vegetables. Exercise. > > I’d say overall my diet has changed less than 10% pre-T1 and post-T1, and the changes I’ve made are largely the ones I probably would have changed anyway in the natural process of getting older, because I do keep an eye on my health and weight. > > (BTW, **2Bits** , fun thread. Thanks for starting it.) I know you’re quite the foodie! 😃 But I was being glib. I’m a Type II who is nearly bereft of any appetite (and I also have gastroparesis which makes me feel full all the time) and I often find myself in situations where I failed to eat, my BS is low, and I need to scramble to find something to eat that will fix it. And satiate me (because, thanks to the gastroparesis, I’m suddenly hungry). And not take me too far in the wrong direction. One of my BFF’s is a Type I, for about 25 years now, and what she is eating is always on her mind. She has to count carbs and count insulin, and make sure she eats at the right time. And when she gets low she has to drop everything and eat. And what she’s been “able” to eat has changed over the years - from the “no cupcakes for diabetics” when we were little to realizing it doesn’t matter as much as long as she has the right amount of insulin. And I think she’s developed a complex about food - eating more crap now since she was so strict as a kid. Anyway, when I say “eat to live” I am thinking of myself, and her, and how it seems like I am always having to be eating. And honestly eating is the last thing I ever want to do. But if I want to live, here I am. Eating. Obviously this is not a problem in the \*\*Athena \*\*household, where good food and people who love to cook it abounds! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939/46 "2017-03-14T15:59:23Z")
I have a friend who is Type I, and although usually he’s got it under good control, seems to have two types of blood sugar excursions - The Stupids (where his wife has to holler at him to eat something), and Turbo-Goofy (where she has to shout “check your blood sugar”). At one time, I could never remember which effect was caused by what (blood sugar too low or too high), until low-carb became all the rage a few years ago and suddenly people were wandering around at work in a ketosis-torpor. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939/47 "2017-03-14T23:43:16Z")
Both of my grandmothers had to urine test, **Roderick**. Essentially, you peed on a litmus strip. I knew enough that I knew that purple meant so many units of insulin (Granny was blind and by age 10, I had learned to help her with insulin). They both had to keep candy in their pocketbooks for the inevitable low blood sugar episodes. Thank goodness for inexpensive glucose meters. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939/48 "2017-03-15T00:12:48Z")
It sucks ass. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939/49 "2017-03-15T04:34:28Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > It sucks ass. This pretty much sums it up. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whataya-know-about-type-1-diabetes/781939.md?page=2)