Moving Out of Chronic Disease

When a person has a diagnosis of a chronic problem or disease, this means more self-care and not less. While medications may be ordered for some diagnoses, that does not mean that the individual can just sit back and not pay attention to the other risk factors...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht

Nutrition must always be improved. Addictions must be managed and put to bed. Most chronic problems are stress related, and so a good program of stress management must be adhered to. If you have been given a chronic disease diagnosis, accept it as a big red flag notifying you to pay attention and become self-responsible.

Patients with diabetes or pre-diabetes often have big cravings for sugar or other carbohydrate foods, especially refined ones. Since you are reading this book, you may fall into this group. It's a good idea to be working with a diabetes management nursing professional so they can learn to balance protein, carbohydrates and fat, as well as the times of day for eating. Exercise levels need to be considered. If you are on medication this is even more important to keep blood sugars remain stable and out of reactive hypoglycemia. When the meals are properly balanced to meet your individual needs, sugar cravings will subside.

It's important to remember that cravings can be physiological, emotional or both. Physiological cravings are managed through correct nutritional planning. Medication may be necessary. Emotional cravings can be managed with deep relaxation, interactive awareness and other self-hypnotic tools. Pre-diabetic and diabetic patients can curb the disease with excellent self-care. Keep in mind that having a disease is not a death sentence, but a wake-up call to improve the care you deliver to yourself.

Perhaps you have been diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemia or have symptoms related to blood sugar imbalances. Most people with sugar addiction do fall into this category. Some have more symptoms than others, often meaning that they have developed more insulin resistance over the years due to poor self-care. For me, this is a very sad state of affairs. Most patients who come to my office for weight management, have reactive hypoglycemia. Other patients who come to stop smoking or for alcohol reduction also tend to have this as well.

Patients do not seem to know how to manage reactive hypoglycemia or other blood sugar problems. They will often eat sugar in some form to manage the symptoms. If the person is over-weight, they tend to believe that skipping meals is the answer. Few understand what scale weight means, just taking it at face value. We are made up of body fat and a lean body mass. When the body fat percentage is too high, the lean body mass will be too low. Your lean body mass is your fat-burning machine. If you don’t feed it properly, it will break down, bringing the body fat percentage even higher. Such is the quagmire. Knowing this makes it easy to understand why there are so many people in our society who are overly fat. You will be reading more about this in the chapters addressing food intake.

Whenever a patient with a diagnosis of reactive hypoglycemia tells me that they are gaining weight, a red flag goes up for me. In addition, if they notice that candy, or pure sugar helps them to feel better, there goes another red flag. Keep in mind that if reactive hypoglycemia isn’t properly managed, the patient runs a high risk for developing adult onset diabetes. This could be a matter of insufficient food, an imbalance of food groups, undisciplined eating schedule, or exercise that is not being covered by the food intake. There are different levels of reactive hypoglycemia, some being nearer to the door of adult onset diabetes than others.

Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, President & Program Designer for Sarasota Medical & Sports Hypnosis Institute located in Sarasota, FL & online at http://www.hypnosis-audio.com & http://www.sugar-addiction.comShe is the author of Sugar....the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It, Beyond Disorderly Eating...The Truth About Sugar, Bingeing & How to Stop, as well as The MindBody Fitness Boot Camp... Lifestyle Change Made Easy. She has also written & produced +350 audio CD's & mp3's. The websites include moderated discussion groups, ezines, library & a host of other educational tools for learning Interactive Self-Hypnosis. Visit the online Boot Camp & work directly with the author. Download a free mp3 each month.