#968 Diabetes Myths: Altered Mind Lie

August 3, 2023Scott Benner

A brand new series examining the myths surrounding diabetes.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 968 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today on the show Jenny is back and joining me for another diabetes myth episode. Today Jenny and I are going to talk about the altered mind and whether or not it's a lie. While you're listening, please, please, please, please, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. If you're enjoying the diabetes myth series, you may have missed some go back in that podcast player and take a look. If you're not listening in a podcast player Oh, get one apple podcast Spotify or something like that they're free and way easier to listen to a podcast with speaking of different series within the podcast, there's ask Scott and Jenny afterdark algorithm pumping bold beginnings defining diabetes defining thyroid diabetes, pro tip, diabetes variables mental wellness type two diabetes pro tip, how to eat and much more juicebox podcast.com Look up in the menu. You'll find them all. I drink ag one every morning and you could to use my link to get started and you'll get a free year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first order. Drink ag one.com forward slash juice box. I'm going to tell you about one of the better decisions I made last year I switched Arden's delivery of her diabetes supplies from where we were getting them to us Med and US med is more than edging out the service that we were getting from that previous company. right from the comfort of your home or office, you can join over 1 million satisfied customers who rely on us med for courteous, knowledgeable and trained customer care and their representatives are going to keep you up to date with your medical and diabetic supplies. All delivered right to your door. Us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check right now. US med features a litany of things that you're going to love. How about an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau. They accept Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers. They carry everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the FreeStyle Libre three, the Dexcom G six and a little bird told me the Dexcom G seven coming very soon. They always provide you with 90 days worth of supplies, and fast and free shipping. better service and better care is what you're going to get when you go to us med.com forward slash juice box. On top of all of this US med is now dispensing Novolog insulin aspart and human log insulin lispro through their pharmacy benefits. What are you waiting for us med.com forward slash juice box 888721151 For us med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash. They are the place we got our hands on the pod fives from us med provides Arden with her Dexcom supplies, and are the number one fastest growing tanam distributor nationwide. I mean, I guess I could say it again. But are you just already online getting it done? Are you even listening to me anymore? Where have you already called 888-721-1514? Don't like the phone? Us? med.com forward slash juicebox. The other day I got an email from us Med and it said are you You want some more supplies? I guess it was time? And I said yes. Click the button and then they just showed up. You want to do it like that. It's pretty damn easy. Us mint.com forward slash juicebox. Jennifer, we are back to tackle another diabetes myth. You must be incredibly impressed that I've learned to say myth. And I know I am I still have to think about it while I'm saying it. But still it's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:09
funny. I didn't think that you said it wrong or weird to begin with. I know you think that you did. But I think it's the way that the brain plays tricks. My kids have actually just been doing this with words. They'll say a word and they keep saying it like the other day it was Spoon. Spoon spoon. I'm like say it in your head. I don't want to hear a spoon anymore. But it was that they just kept saying it and then it became really weird. They heard themselves say it is it doesn't sound like spoon anymore in my head mouth. So I think it was probably that

Scott Benner 4:39
I don't know what it is actually this is gonna sound strange, but I'm a little dehydrated since I've been using weego V. I'm having a trouble getting myself hydrated enough right and it feels like I can't drink enough water.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:51
Are you taking in electrolytes as well as your water?

Scott Benner 4:54
No. What should I be doing?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:56
Please take some electrolytes along with your daily water. It's especially if you are really like trying to hydrate above and beyond what you have been doing. Electrolytes are a really important piece of management of hydration.

Scott Benner 5:12
Should I just get like a little packet of something that goes into the water?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:15
Yeah, there are lots of options. I mean, the easy ones to find are the new tabs and you you N, another one is Ultima, they're really easy. Noon. If you don't want caffeine, don't buy the ones with caffeine in them. But they come in a lot of different flavors. They don't have any sugar or anything funky in them. But it's a nice way to just give a little EQ electrolytes.

Scott Benner 5:35
To do that today. I brought that up. Because if my mouth gets dry, I feel like my lip gets stuck. And the word myth like is what makes me feel that way. Anyway, I see. But I'm not quite right. I learned something by mistake by telling you my stupid story about how my mouth is getting stuck. There you go. Thank you, I'm actually going to do that. Anyway, anyway, we're back to talk about a myth. It's a short episode. But this myth is that the altered mind is a lie with and now the reason that we use that wording is because you and I did an episode called altered minds where we talked about how people can feel an act if their blood sugar's too low or too high. Yes. But that it turns out that in regular life, people who are around you may be very unwilling to believe that you're having a lower high blood sugar, and therefore that's why you're acting.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:25
And it's just that you're acting like a mean person, because you're choosing to

Scott Benner 6:29
Yeah, they think you're a dick is what

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:34
it is, you might just be being a nasty person, it has nothing to do with your blood pressure, or blood sugar. Obviously, everybody can be mean and nasty at times, not out of the

Scott Benner 6:43
question at all. But here it is. I've been told that being higher low does not affect my mood. And that I am just using it as an excuse. untrue, right. So if you're too low, you can feel dizzy, disoriented. Angry. Yep. short tempered. Yep. Right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:04
Absolutely. You can become honestly violent. Confuse, you can be confused and violent and try to I mean, honestly start a fight or punch somebody or shove somebody sometimes to it's interesting. If you're have a low enough blood sugar or not with it enough to know exactly what you're doing. You may actually, it's kind of like, somebody stuck under a car and you get that superhuman, like strength to like lift it off and get them out right. With a low blood sugar. There are some interesting things that end up happening and you could actually become even stronger and have and fighting several people at once who are trying to help you and you're not realizing,

Scott Benner 7:47
Oh, is that sort of like when I see police officers try to stop people who are like jacked up on drugs and they shoot them in their body still don't fall over. Is that the Have you ever seen that? Oh, my God,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:58
probably. I don't watch the shows that you watch. It you're watching.

Scott Benner 8:02
My friend of mine is a police officer. And during his training, part of what they showed them was like body cam footage of people on certain drugs that were attacking police officers being like hit and they weren't falling over. They were still like advancing. And so really crazy. But anyway, that's where my brain jumped just now. I will tell you that Arden got low at a family function last weekend. And it kind of came on her quickly. And I watched her try to get it like she took in a bunch of stuff. It just didn't she didn't get to a quite honestly, if I think what was happening was I think she thought she was drifting lower, slower than she was. So she had time. And she thought she had more time. So the thing she took in wasn't as fast acting and then she got lower than she wanted to be. And I looked over at her and she was shut off. Like the the food was in and she was coming back up. But she was gone in her face. Like she was sitting there trying to pretend that she was being part of what was going on. But she was not. And it took the better part of an hour for her to feel better after that. Yeah. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:11
it's funny that like, I know your relationship with her. You guys have a very close family, you have a very close relationship with her. So you caught it. I wouldn't think that other people would have noticed that.

Scott Benner 9:27
Oh, for sure not. No, they're not right, or blood sugar. So they just think you're being bitchy and not involved

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:33
or quiet or whatever. In fact, you know is I've been married a long time and that's one of the things that Nathan knows well enough. Now. If I am kind of quiet or I am not like talking like I normally do, I mean you know me and my personality is the way that it is and he'll say Are you hungry? Or are you You know, and he just he has an idea already. Have my response versus my response when my blood sugar isn't quite where it should be?

Scott Benner 10:05
Yeah. Yeah. If I, if I were to say to Arden, are you hungry, but she was low? She would see that as it's interesting, she wouldn't see it that way her reaction would be, I don't need you to tell me that my blood sugar is low. It's but that's a function of the low blood sugar because she wouldn't act like that. Not with a low blood sugar. Sure, yeah. So you can see how it changes. But you're right. Yeah, I noticed that. Honestly, I don't think anyone else Kelly knew. But I don't think anyone else knew there were a lot of people in that room, and it makes this point. But then the problem is, is that what this next person says is that people in my life believe that I'm, this is terrible, that I exaggerate how I feel. So that they can get, I don't know, like, what what they're trying to say, here is the need to eat the house, that that I'm I'm exaggerating that feeling. But I think the tone of this is, is that I'm trying to get something or get people to feel a certain way for me by exaggerating how I feel I'm exaggerating. Yeah. And so

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:11
and that's really sad. It really is. And I think I don't know that there's a way to explain it to people. To get them like you, you understand it from a perspective of a parent. Right? Other people or other family members or friends may not see below, they may see the surface level and may very well think you're just trying to get more you're trying to get something or whatever out of the situation. When they if they really asked you after the experience, so that you were rationally talking about this with them, you could probably give them some insight into what this really feels like. And the fact that your answers are not going to be as normal and or that you may be asking for things that seem odd and out of place and whatever. And then there might be some people who are just never gonna, they're just never going to accept what you tell them. And then

Scott Benner 12:11
on the flip side, high blood sugars can make you feel nauseous, foggy, you know, that kind of stuff. And then long term high blood sugars can literally change like the person you are like, if your blood sugar is always high, your personality wise are going to be different than you would be if your blood sugar was stable. Just one of the things about diabetes that breaks my heart and that I talked about, I've talked about throughout the podcast forever and ever. You deserve to be yourself. Like that's one of the reasons that you should be striving for stability is so that you can actually in this life, be the person that you all want to be Yeah, and I will tell you this, too. I know this is a short one. But I don't talk about Mike a ton. But my friend Mike growing up had type one. He's not with us any longer. But we didn't understand what was going on either. What I can tell you is that Mike was the one you didn't let drive. Because sometimes the driving got weird. And he was a person who was one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life. But people would think he had a bad temper. And then he would fly off the handle. And now I realized decades later, obviously, with a different perspective, Mike's blood sugar was high a lot. That's what it was. And then eventually it would crash. And then he'd eat and drive it back up high again. And that that bouncing around really impacted him. And I'm telling you that without type one diabetes, a very thoughtful, artistic, lovely person. And yet, if you ask somebody about him, you'd say, oh, Mike was a little weird. And he wasn't a good driver. And he got mad sometimes. And I never knew why. Like that. Yeah. And that's unfortunate.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:53
I was curious if you remembering your friend took anything out of that experience and what you've learned and applied and how you see things with art in them. Sure.

Scott Benner 14:05
Yeah. Because I knew him at his core. Like he was not he was not an angry person. Right? So it just when it happened, but when it's happening, it's so real. Because it is real. But I mean, it's so visceral, that you can't just in the moment, you can't say oh, this person is being horrible, but it's okay. Because their blood sugar is high. Like I can pull that off for my daughter. But I can't hear my son can't pull it off for like he's, I think that's how tightly you have to be attached to somebody to like, be able to look at something crazy happening and go no, no, no, that's not really them. Because otherwise, it's just it's such a visceral reaction like you can't you hit. I don't know, it's hard to just change the words coming out of your mouth. And have them be so different than the feeling that you're having watching the person react that way. But yeah, I guess maybe Mike's my experience with Mike has helped me understand that but better, but then all these people are out there in the world. And the people they're talking to don't have those experiences. So they're being told that they're overreacting. They're exaggerating. They don't really feel that way. You're just using it as an excuse. No, it sucks. It's, and I'm not saying people haven't used their diabetes is an excuse for stuff. Oh, of course, Fair enough.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:23
Fair enough. All right. Yeah.

Scott Benner 15:26
One time Martin said to me, she was in college, because I've never used my diabetes as an excuse for anything. And I was like, okay, because I really haven't ever. Oh, my God, he goes, Do you think I could just this one time today? She's like, I'm trying to study for this exam. And I was like, I was like, Are you go for it? Do whatever you need to do. So anyway, the altered mind is not a lie, your mind becomes altered with high low blood sugar, high, low, high blood sugars, low blood sugars, bouncing blood sugars up and down, up and down. Instability, all of that changes the chemistry in your body and how your brain works. I mean, honestly, Jenny, it's, if I'm sorry, oh, no, go ahead. If I take salt out of your system, if you become dehydrated and low on sodium, your brain gets altered. Yes,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:15
and your heart rate and lots of different things happen at different

Scott Benner 16:18
times. Good, just from sodium not being there. So it's not crazy that glucose would have an impact as well. That's all I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:26
know. In fact, if people understand that, outside of a ketogenic diet, your brain operates on glucose. Right? And so why wouldn't your thoughts and everything get altered? If you think about how your how in terms of feeling everybody with diabetes can understand how their thinking gets altered, when their brain isn't getting the glucose that it needs? Right? Explaining that I think what I was gonna say, once the person with diabetes is out of that low or that high blood sugar to explain to somebody else who doesn't really think that alter, altering of kind of a mental state is actually happening. It would be good for them to discuss and say, What am I usually like? And how was I during, you know, this evening time period where you kept complaining that I was just being a mean person, right? Am I usually like that. Sometimes you have to call people out and say, you have to point it out. Yeah. In order to be able to prove a point and explain what they're not understand.

Scott Benner 17:38
It's in the endzone, it's communication. And that's the hardest thing, right. So anyway, I appreciate you doing this with me very much. Yes, thank you. I'll talk to you soon.

Our good friend Jennifer Smith works at integrated diabetes.com You can hire her to help you with your diabetes care. I want to thank you guys so much for supporting the show and for sharing it with so many others it grows every day because of your kindness. Don't forget to check out the private Facebook group, the public Facebook page, check me on Instagram, the Tick Tock machine anywhere you get your socials Juicebox Podcast is there. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Now enjoy some music. And I'll give you some other stuff at the end.

Once there was a time when I just told people if you want a low and stable a one C, just listen to the Juicebox Podcast. But as the years went on, and the podcast episodes grew, it became more and more difficult for people to listen to everyone. So I made the diabetes Pro Tip series. This series is with me and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a Certified diabetes Care and Education Specialist. She's also a registered and licensed dietitian and a type one herself for over 30 years and I of course, am the father of a child who was diagnosed at age two in 2006. The Pro Tip series begins at episode 210 with an episode called newly diagnosed or starting over and from there all about MDI Pre-Bolus Singh insulin pumping, pumping and nudging variables exercise illness, injury surgeries glucagon long term health bumping and nudging how to explain type one to your family. Postpartum honeymoon transitioning all about insulin Temp Basal. These are all different episodes setting your Basal insulin fat and protein pregnancy the glycemic index and load and so much more like female hormones and weight loss. Head now to juicebox podcast.com Go up in the menu at the top and click Gone diabetes pro tip. Or if you're in the private Facebook group, there's a list of these episodes right in the feature tab. Find out how I helped keep my daughter's a one C between five two and six two for the last 10 years without diet restrictions juicebox podcast.com Start listening today. It's absolutely free. Everybody who has diabetes has diabetes supplies, but not everybody gets them from us med the way we do us med.com forward slash juicebox or call 888-721-1514. US med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash, the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide, and they always provide 90 days worth of supplies, and fast and free shipping. That's right us med carries everything from insulin pumps to diabetes testing supplies, right up to your latest CGM like the FreeStyle Libre two N three and the Dexcom G six and seven. They even have Omni pod dash and Omnipod five, they have an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and you can reach them at 888-721-1514 or by going to my link us med.com forward slash juicebox. When you contact them, you get your free benefits check. And then if they take your insurance, you're often going and US med takes over 800 private insurers and Medicare nationwide. better service and better care is what US med wants to provide for you. Us med.com forward slash juicebox get your diabetes supplies the same way Arden does from us med links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com to us Med and all the sponsors when you use my links you're supporting the show