This and that

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Look before you leap today, dear Aquarius. There is a very good chance of falling if you are not careful. Errors can easily be avoided by simply taking the time to think things through carefully before you act. Also, though you are great about starting projects, you're not so great when it comes to finishing them. Today would be an excellent time to practice your follow-through. PeoplePC

This is my horoscope for today. No wonder I haven't been posting. I even have my horoscope bitching at me. And, I haven't been doing much leaping anyway, hell, I haven't even starting packing yet!

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While browsing through some blogs that I read, I happened upon Babzy's. I learned that certain bacteria in my digestive system could be craving chocolate. Now, after consuming chocolate yesterday, I am consumed with nausea. It could be a bug, or it could be a somatic response to the new information. Which ever it is, I am glad, because being a diabetic, or borderline diabetic, depending on which scale you choose, I do not need to eat chocolate. Or sugar. Actually, there are two schools of thought about what constitutes having diabetes.



















There is one theory that any blood sugar reading above 109, should be investigated further with tests, and treated as being diabetic. Then there is the old standard of 124. What actually happens in a lot of cases is that as your body loses the ability to use insulin, you will find you're blood sugar levels may run lower than normal, as the pancreas goes into overdrive, trying to compensate. I have gone to work, and worked 8 hours, with a blood glucose of 55. I had the RN check it on a whim. I felt OK, just jittery. She looked at me, like, Damnnnnnn.....!!! She told me to drink some juice, so I settled for a Dr. Pepper.

Probably the best doctor to see for a reliable diagnosis would be an endocrinologist. The guy who loves to check out your glands. And hormones. If I had saw one back in 1996, he would have told me I had polycystic ovarian disease, and, perhaps, endometriosis. And who knows how long I had that? I only found out when they yanked everything out. Which is what it felt like afterward. Like it was yanked out, instead of surgically removed.

In addition to regular blood sugar tests you do yourself at home, you should also have an A1C or glycated hemoglobin test at least twice a year. It measures the average blood glucose for about four months.

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Yesterday, a friend sent me a forward that detailed all the toxic effects on your body from consuming large quantities of aspartame, the artificial sweetener in diet Coke and diet Pepsi. Since I consume large quantities of both of these beverages, depending on which one's on sale, I was a little worried. The symptoms listed were often mistaken for those who are diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, and Lupus. Also, it seems that if it does cause arthritis in the body, the effects are irreversible. This place, The Aspartame Information Center, loves the stuff. They list some very important sources, too, like the AMA, and the FDA, which would lead one to believe it is safe for everyone to use.

This place, Sweet Poison, hates the stuff. Authored by Janet Star Hull, it is pretty much a everything-that's-bad-about-aspartame website. She even has steps to "detoxify" your body. One thing that is scary, is that this lady claims one of the metabolites of aspartame's main ingredients, phenylalanine, is formaldehyde. Which pretty much means by the time I die, I will be "pre-embalmed".










If I continue to consume mass quantities of this stuff, that is! They also rave about the substitution of Stevia as a sweetener. Look, I bought some stevia, and you want to talk about after taste? Nasty...

Doing a random check at Snopes they pretty much called it a hoax. But then where do they get their information? (Where do they get their information?) They checked with the FDA, and quoted a visiting scientist from MIT. But what kind of scientist was he? And we all know the FDA is infallible. It's a government agency, for Christ's sake.

Still, one must take this with a grain of salt. It came in an email. It was scary. According to the symptoms, I or just about anyone I know, could be suffering from Aspartame poisoning.












When I worked at the hospital, however, we queried one of the neurologists one night, when he came in to check on a patient. Should we be drinking this stuff? He shook his head no. Now, him, I trust. That was five years ago, and I'm still drinking it. I do notice however that when I was drinking regular sodas, I didn't have as many aches and pains, and I was a lot thinner. What's up with that?