00:00.63
josephpannone
Chet galaska what do you know about diabetes. there's a terrible stigma we know that you know I know there's a type one there's a type 2 what's the difference terrible stigma attached to it with obesity. Ah Chet. Has been type one diabetes for a long time over 30 years didn't tell anybody for a long time. He had friends that didn't deal with it well and now he's retired and his mission is to spread the word. About diabetes the problems There's so much shame related diabetes that people who have it don't want to talk about it so they can't build a community and they can't build a support system and you know if you're type 1 you need to take the insulin shots type 2 you need to take other other types of medication. But. It's hard it's hard to fight it off, you got to keep on battling it with every day I ask them? What should we do? the non-diabetic community when we talk to somebody who is he has a great answer for that and a great response to support that community and the stigmas that are attached to it are just untrue. Talk a lot about that and he's from Massachusetts and his entry into this you know into this mission that he's on to help the community and help spread the word all comes from a Chicago cubs Third basement Ron Santo

01:33.11
josephpannone
And what happened to him and his hall of fame ah lecture and what happened to him in 1 particular game which led to all of this great conversation with check Alaska thanks for listening.



00:00.22
josephpannone
Audience Chet Galaska great pleasure to talk to you my neighbor. Um, just I don't know less than less than a hundred miles about fifty sixty miles away I guess um, yeah, so what.

00:08.97
Chet Galaska
Yeah, pretty close.

00:14.68
josephpannone
What does the great you know Chicago cubs Third basement Ron Santo what does he teach us about diabetes I would.

00:21.39
Chet Galaska
Would you like me to recount the story runn I was in Chicago during the week when Ron Santo was inducted into the baseball hall of fame this goes back probablyly twenty years or so in all the papers I talked about santo's career and one of the. Things they emphasized was that sancho had type 1 diabetes during the 1960 s he kept it a secret because he was afraid the cubs would fire him if they found out and back then he might have been right about that so there sanzo was he's on the cubs now I'm going to tell you a story. But before I do I've got to give you some information first of all when you take insulin which all type ones do. There's a danger of your blood sugar going too low most of us know that high blood sugar is what causes the damage but low blood sugar trigger presents a different problem. What happens is that. The brain takes its energy in the form of glucose directly from the blood. It doesn't store it like other parts of the body. Do. So when there isn't enough sugar in the blood. The brain starts to go haywire. You can start sweating profusely your eyes can get funky. Your. Coordination goes you know anything their brain controls automatically, all of a sudden isn't working the way it should if it gets too low. You can pass out and that does happen to people so that's the background they're in a game in Chicago. It's the last of the ninth.

01:56.30
Chet Galaska
The cubs are down by 2 there's and 2 outs and 2 men on base santa was in the on deck circle and he feels the ah the symptoms of low blood sugar coming on now he can't run back to the dugout and tell Leo de rosher that he needs a candy bar. So he just prayd that the guy at the play will make him out and retire the side. Well instead the guy walks so now his bases loaded 2 outs down by two santo said he walked up to the plate and looked up to see 3 pitchers 3 scoreboards and thirty thirty some odd people standing out in the field.

02:27.70
josephpannone
So.

02:33.49
Chet Galaska
When the pitcher threw the ball it look like it had a slinky attached to the back of it so he took a cut at it connected and put it out of the park for a walk-off Grand Slam Home run he managed to make it around the the bases and back to the dugout in time to eat his his stickers bar which was his choice of sugar.

02:42.22
josephpannone
M.

02:53.26
Chet Galaska
Before anybody found out now that's a great story just the walk-off green and slim home run part of it but for a diabetic who has experienced low blood sugars. That's the minor part of the story.. The major part is that situ was up there really literally sweating. And and sweating out the idea that he just might collapse before he gets back to the dugout. Ah you know most of his know when our sugar's going low but we do something about it quickly enough that nobody knows it's happening. We know it and we know the the slight panic that sets in when when you realize what's going On. Ah.

03:14.51
josephpannone
M.

03:31.52
Chet Galaska
But anyway sanso he got through it. You know I thought it was a great story to tell so when I got back home. That's what I did I started telling a lot of people about this story and I discovered that people don't know much about diabetes at all in a lot of what they believe is not true. That was the first startling thing. But the other thing that was even more important to me was that people started asking me questions about type 2 diabetes and what I realized is that not only did I not know too much about it but much of what I thought about it was wrong as well.

04:00.24
josephpannone
Um.

04:07.97
Chet Galaska
And that's when I realized that our whole society has a terrible problem with a misunderstanding of diabetes. Um, and it's ah it's a dangerous thing in that people are embarrassed to to have diabetes because they think they brought it on on themselves which we now know is not true. And because of the the guilt and shame they feel sometimes they don't treat it at all. So You know that's why I'm doing this you know I'd I'd like to change our society So that people who have the disease and fight it get respected and those people who. Don't fight. It need to be encouraged to do so.

04:48.47
josephpannone
And there couldn't be a great red sock example you had to go away to Chicago for that. Unfortunately.

04:54.31
Chet Galaska
Ah, well you know what on the other hand shall we they were both losers for a very long time. Ah.

05:00.51
josephpannone
It. It's good there now you had you have you but but you had it for you were president of your of your company and you didn't tell anybody for a long time you you pretty much need to know basis. But most people did not know that you had it or have it.

05:17.50
Chet Galaska
Right? Yeah I I was in the foundry business these days people don't usually know what a foundry is but back in the day. It was a big industry what we do in the foundry is we melt metal and we pour it into molds that are made up of a sand and ah a binder. Yeah, we make industrial parts like pumps Valels centrifuges that that sort of thing in our case, my company made gasings up to £2500 which meant that we were pouring metal. You know three thousand 300 you know £3500 at a clip.

05:50.60
josephpannone
Wow.

05:52.98
Chet Galaska
So when we first started the business. My my brother and I started this business from scratch back in 79 and for a few years there I was doing the pouring So the last thing I needed was the people who were working with me. To wonder whether I was going to go south on them because nobody understands diabetes except it's a bad thing and you know you're just not sure about the person who's got it in my case I made sure that I would never suffer a low blood sugar while I was doing something dangerous.

06:09.00
josephpannone
E.

06:25.60
Chet Galaska
So I made sure that so my shirt was up there and it it was never ever a problem but I just didn't need people pre-judging me and thinking I was somehow weaker than others because I had the diabetes when I encountered the santo story and started.

06:35.68
josephpannone
Um.

06:42.50
Chet Galaska
Realizing how bad the misinformation problem was I decided to to write a book about it and in order to do that I felt I needed to talk to as many diabetics as possible to get their takes on what they put up with and how they see the situation too. So I I did I I yeah I told everybody that I I knew that I had diabetes I told them if you know anybody who's got diabetes. Let them know I'd be happy to talk to him. In fact, I'd love to talk to him and you know people accepted it but 1 guy in particular sticks in my mind I had known this guy for 20 years and he came up to me and he said I hear you got diabetes and I said yeah I do he said well, that's funny. You don't look like a diabetic well that says it all right there Joey you know I don't know what he expected a diabetic to look like but it wasn't a healthy strong person who could do.

07:19.72
josephpannone
M.

07:38.65
Chet Galaska
All this work. You know so that's that's the problem people have these perceptions and they are unfair. In fact, you know what? what he should have done is said Gee. You've got diabetes I give you all the credit in the world for for controlling you well enough to be able to do all this stuff. Because what diabetes does is it doesn't keep you from doing anything but it makes everything harder. You know you've got this low blood sugar that you know that you have to think about.

08:02.30
josephpannone
M. Now you weren't born with type one.

08:12.20
Chet Galaska
No, um I was diagnosed when I was 29 they used to be called juvenile diabetes. But now it turns out that you can get it at any age and the same thing is true at type 2 that that used to be called adult onset diabetes.

08:18.29
josephpannone
Right.

08:28.84
Chet Galaska
But now kids get it so they change the terminology from those terms to type one and type 2 So I don't know if you can be born with it. But I know that babies get it. You know whether they're born with it or not I don't know.

08:34.94
josephpannone
Can you be born with it.

08:42.81
josephpannone
Oh.

08:48.54
Chet Galaska
What happens with both types is that you inherit a genetic predisposition for it and it it gets triggered by something in the environment. We don't know what the triggers are or how to control them. We don't even know that much about the genes except that there are an awful lot of them. So It's just a question of when you get that Trigger. So.

09:09.50
josephpannone
In when it happens the symptoms are you cloudiness because you're little sugar.

09:15.87
Chet Galaska
Obbeit Well well with the low sugar. Ah you know, sweating your eyes get Blurry I get Pale. You know my wife will tell me I'm having a low blood sugar before I know it. Because I turn pale before I experiencing other symptoms So other diabetic spouses tell me the same thing you know they they know more about you know this than than their husbands do. Of course if they don't tell you right away then you're going to have the.

09:32.56
josephpannone
Um.

09:48.71
Chet Galaska
You know the loss of coordination and eyesight and all the rest of it So There are also you know different symptoms for different people. You may change the way you enunciate words you know that's something is subtle is maybe laughing. And inappropriate times you know it really depends on the person and.

10:07.80
josephpannone
So let's break it down Chet what what happens? What? what does the pancreas do how's insulin created what what happens.

10:13.98
Chet Galaska
Yeah, let me explain how how normal bodies work first Joey it'll make a lot more sense if I do that when normal people eat food. It gets digested into insulin and I'm sorry it gets digested into glucose.

10:29.00
josephpannone
Glucose. Yeah.

10:29.91
Chet Galaska
Glucose Enters Your bloodstream glucose is just another name for sugar. So The sugar gets in your bloodstream and it travels around your body where it enters your body cells which use it for Energy. So It's in the bloodstream. It. Leaves a bloodstream into the cells with a result that their blood sugar returns to normal. So There's this constant. You know, balancing going on in your body now the way it gets into the cells is that the pancreas senses that that glucose is in the blood. And it produces this hormone called Insulin Insulin's job is to unlock the cells so it travels along with the glucose in the blood and when it comes to the cells the glucose the ah insulin unlocks a cell so that glucose can leave the blood and get into the cell.

11:23.88
Chet Galaska
Now This is where diabetes comes into play the the 2 types of diabetes both result in high blood sugar which is what the term diabetes means but they get to it in different ways with type one which I have I have an autoimmune disease which has turned my body's. Ah, defenses against my pancreas. It kills off the insulin-producing cells in the Pancreas. So I don't produce enough Insulin. No no type one does So the solution there is to take it by injection because Insulin breaks down in digestion. So We wind up taking dosages of Insulin usually several times a day. Ah you try to do it before you eat so that the ins instantly gets in your blood around the same time that the glucose does So. That's that's that's kind of an art to do that and nobody gets it right? all the time but that's that's what we try to do.

12:11.91
josephpannone
Wow.

12:22.23
Chet Galaska
With type 2 It's actually a different disease. It starts with a condition called insulin resistance now. Insulin resistance is exactly what the name says it is it makes your cells resistant to insulin once you have it the cells need more and more insulin to. Be unlocked because of that the pancreas works over time to produce it more and more insulin to overcome that unfortunately the resistance gets worse over time. So the pancreas works harder and harder and eventually it wears out excuse me. By the time you're diagnosed with with diabetes. You're pick with type two diabetes. Your fracus has already lost about half its capacity. So you're still making some insulin just not enough to overcome the resistance. So. The result is that the glucose stays in your blood unless you do something, you're better.

13:20.68
josephpannone
Um, so as both types you still need to take insulin shots.

13:23.56
Chet Galaska
Well no with type one you do with type 2 There are other medications you can take a lot of them. You know they are injections but most them are pills and excuse me Joey.

13:40.81
josephpannone
Um, take your time. How's your blood sugar now.

13:47.21
Chet Galaska
Right now. It's ah, probably around one 60 which is not bad anything under 81 is what we're trying to achieve mine typically is lower than this. But when you are active even mentally.

13:53.30
josephpannone
Um.

14:05.11
Chet Galaska
It burns Blood sugar. You know like the the brain uses 25% of the body's and energy believe it or not. It's only 5% of the volume but it uses a lot of energy and what I discovered a long time ago and so when I'm doing something where I'm constantly thinking. Ah, my blood sugar does drop So I'm deliberately running it higher than I normally would because I'm talking to you because I know over the course of this broadcast. It's going to drop So That's you know I'm glad you brought that up because that's.

14:28.55
josephpannone
Says.

14:39.63
Chet Galaska
1 of the many things that diabetics have to consider with this disease. You really have to learn about it and know what's going to raise your blood your heart and what's going to drop it. Ah you know thinking you know constantly and heavily is 1 thing physical activity is another. Even moderate physical activity will lower your blood glucose carbohydrates raise it. You know that's that's the big thing with diet that we have to watch out for carbohydrates are the the number 1 thing that does raise it. And this is ah, an amazing thing if you look at a gram of sugar and a gram of breadres of carbohydrate that gram of bread will digest into one gram of sugar. So you have got to identify where the carbohydrates are that you're eating because really, you are eating sugar. It just hasn't turned into sugar yet.

15:31.71
josephpannone
Wow.

15:40.89
josephpannone
Um, same thing with Pasta same thing with.

15:45.56
Chet Galaska
Pasta is pasta is high in carbohydrate. In fact, I'll give you an example I gave courses before covid covid was it just kind of killed everything is that I would meet people. You know in groups and and we would go over all this basic stuff and I had a ah woman there 1 time who told me that her blood sugars were over 200 and she couldn't get them down couldn't figure out what the problem is while in talking to her. It turns out that her husband worked the second shift and when he came home. You know she cooked him supper and he liked pasta so they were eating pasta every night she liked to eat with him so she ate it too. So I I asked her to just stop eating the pasta for a week and when you come back next week let me know which you found. And sure enough her blood sugars dropped to the low one hundred s which is perfect but in her case, that's what the the demon was it was all that pasta so you know what you need to do as a diabetic is to really look at your food.

16:44.41
josephpannone
Since.

16:54.49
Chet Galaska
And ask yourself where are the carbs coming from and if you're going to eat a really high carb meal either eat something else or eat less of it and substitute something that that is lower carb like protein is low carb. You know you can eat you know, eggs and meats and fish and.

17:05.82
josephpannone
M.

17:11.18
Chet Galaska
Lots of things like that that will not raise your blood sugar. So yeah, you try not to deny yourself the taste of things that you really like to eat but you know understand you can't eat an unlimited amount of it.

17:23.13
josephpannone
We were talking before I got sidetracked about the medications type 2 can take pills. Don't necessarily need injections.

17:30.34
Chet Galaska
Right? Yeah that the pills do a variety of things. Your liver is something that is a real wild card when it comes to diabetes The reason for that is that your liver both produces glucose and it stores it. The reason it does that is that when the fight or flight reflex kicks in where you need you need some energy in a real hurry. Well your liver blasts sugar into your bloodstream. So That's pretty hard to control. You know it's totally Nothing. You can you can do on your own. But. Some of these medications will reduce the liver's ability to produce glucose and reduce its ability to store it others will promote the pancreas to produce more insulin with the capacity that's left others will slow down digestion So that. You feed the glucose into your body much more gradually and there are others that that do various things. It's a really complicated thing and it's really something that you and your doctor have to figure out but there there are a lot of options. There.

18:42.68
josephpannone
Now Why does ah diabetes have such a negative stigma with with obesity.

18:47.51
Chet Galaska
Well for years. The medical profession's been telling us to lose weight. Otherwise we're going to get diabetes when I first started looking into this at taught zomi that the Cdc says that 70% of us are overweight.

18:54.71
josephpannone
Um.

19:06.55
Chet Galaska
But only about 10% of us have diabetes so you know if being overweight really did cause it. Why is that true. Also why is it true that so many people who are thin and exercised and eat right? become type 2 diabetic. You know that doesn't fit that either. So. You know the answer is that it's a genetic thing at its heart. You have the the genes you hit a trigger and you're going to have to deal with insulin resistance which means you're going to have to deal with type two diabetes now. The weight thing comes into play in a way you wouldn't think. It's not that it causes insulin resistance. It's that it makes the insulin resistance worse the reason for that is that visceral fat can make it worse. We have 2 different kinds of fat. You've got subcutaneous fat which is the squishy stuff that. Is on the outside of the body and you've got visceral fat which is a hard substance that's packed in around your organs the visceral fat does make the insulin resistance worse and therefore it puts more strain on your pancreas and it does raise your blood sugar. So that's got ah an impact but it's after the fact it's not causative. It's more of ah you know a maintenance kind of thing. The good thing about the visceral fat is that we're told to lose between 5 and 7% of the body weight and that'll make a difference. The reason for that.

20:39.61
Chet Galaska
Is that when you lose weight the visceral fat is what you lose first. So you're losing the bad stuff. So it's good that you don't have to lose half your weight. It's it's the first way that comes off that really impacts diabetes.

20:54.93
josephpannone
Um, very interesting. So if you have it being heavy would just make it worse but it won't stop it.

21:04.55
Chet Galaska
Right? It'll you know it's a complex thing. You know I'm not a doctor I'm not an expert in everything diabetes I'm really a guy who sees a problem.

21:14.24
josephpannone
Right.

21:21.90
Chet Galaska
Experiences at Firsthand and those lots of other people who do too and I've also talked to a lot of other people about these system make sure that whatever I'm telling you is correct so you know as far as what what you asked about the weight I could speculate about it but I really can't give you a hard and fast answer on it.

21:23.47
josephpannone
O.

21:36.33
josephpannone
A.

21:40.46
Chet Galaska
My guess is that if you're overweight and you're likely eating more than you really need to you probably aren't as physically active as you should be and both of those things play into bad blood sugars.

21:46.76
josephpannone
E.

21:57.95
josephpannone
And excuse me. You know I've been with friends that are diabetic and you know they're starting to crash and I tell you chet they just have some orange juice and with minutes they're fine I mean's so it's it's maintainable and that's not a word maintainable I'm not sure if it is.

22:13.45
Chet Galaska
Yeah I think I think it is so I'll I'll let it go I think you're good.

22:16.50
josephpannone
I Think so ah, ah, you understand what I mean Ah, but but there but now it's not as difficult because there's constant tests you can take you knew it right off the top your head is it just something you feel.

22:30.66
Chet Galaska
Well yeah, um, in my case I would sweat a lot and my eyes that start to get a little blurry with my eyes. You know after a while you just know what the symptoms are now.

22:36.21
josephpannone
Ah.

22:46.30
josephpannone
Um.

22:47.34
Chet Galaska
Today I have a real advantage because I can tell you what my blood sugar is right now I've got a yeah I've got a continual glucose monitor that that tells me what my blood sugar is right now now back in the day in 1981 when I first was ah diagnosed.

22:56.29
josephpannone
Wow.

23:06.27
Chet Galaska
Didn't have anything like that. The closest thing we had was something called test tape. It was a yellow paper that came in a dispenser like a tape measure and you would pull out a strip of it and put it in a urine sample and if it stayed Yellow. You knew your sugar was was okay. If it started turning green. You knew it was was a little high if it turned black. You knew it was really high but the problem was that this is old information This is stuff that got turned into urine an hour and a half ago. So It had some bearing on what your blood sugar was right that moment but it was really just a guess you know we then got into a personal metering where you could buy a meter and give yourself a finger stick and get ah a drop of blood. And you would know then what your blood sugar was right away so that was a huge big deal when that happened you know I was teaching people about diabetes you know before we had that the continual glucose monitor so we were doing the finger sticks. And people would say man I I got to do a finger stick to me, you got to take a blood sample like it's the worst thing in the world I said look it's not that you have have to do it. It's that you get to do it. You know if you know to do what it was like to try to figure out what your blood sugars were before you had this.

24:33.17
Chet Galaska
Ah, you would understand how this was ah a great thing so you know old timerss like me we we understand that and we have to have a bit of a different attitude on it.

24:42.54
josephpannone
Um, Chet what can we do to support the diabetes community better.

24:49.32
Chet Galaska
What you can do is understand that diabetics don't become diabetic because they're overweight sedentary and irresponsible. That's the problem every day most people out there. That's what they think Joey.

25:00.10
josephpannone
O.

25:08.29
Chet Galaska
Think that you did something wrong to bring it on yourself and many diabetics believe that also because it's what they've been told as well very few people research diabetes Even those who have it don't do it One of the. Great things that I experience when when I teach people about it is that they'll tell me that after the classes that the best thing I told them was that they were not responsible for having this thing you can see that the guilt melt off their faces. It's like they've been you know killing each other mentally over something that they really had no control over so it's a whole different attitude for them. But the real problem is that because diabetics keep it Secret. We don't talk to each other and we don't have the pure support that other people have now. I Would never equate diabetes with cancer but cancer patients have a great thing going for them in that everybody respects people who fight cancer everybody knows a little bit about cancer probably more than they know about diabetes and there are support groups. There are programs to fight diabetes.

26:10.40
josephpannone
M.

26:21.80
Chet Galaska
I mean to fight cancer and so there's all this support going on that really helps people but diabebitics don't have this at all and it can really be a dangerous thing back during those days when I was keeping my diabetes a secret. As as you mentioned it was for 30 years I didn't tell anybody I had it unless I really needed to know a few years ago I contacted a former employee. He worked for me for probably twenty five or thirty years so you know like I knew him? well. And I liked. He was a good good guy. He had diabetes. He told me that he didn't take care of it so he went to the hospital after a number of years because he couldn't take the pain anymore and they amputated one leg on one day and the other one on the next and now he's in a wheelchair and suffering other effects from it too. So this is really serious stuff at first I felt really bad for him and I still do. In fact, he died a couple years later so I went to was awake and. You know he's no longer with us. You know I felt bad about his complications but it dawned on me that I knew this guy when he was diagnosed with diabetes and if he had known that I had it. Maybe he would have come to me and said chet I've got diabetes.

27:45.87
josephpannone
Um.

27:51.88
Chet Galaska
But can you do, but what can you help me with can you explain something about it and if I had been open about it and that conversation happened. Maybe he would still be alive today. But that's the kind of tragedies that happen because diabetics are are so quiet about it. And you ask what? you could do you can spread the word that diabetics don't bring it on themselves and they deserve respect for fighting it and get rid of that stigma so that diabetics will be freer to talk about it and and help each other and ah. Control the better.

28:28.30
josephpannone
Yeah, and that's really your mission.. That's a sad story there and I could see how guilt can play into that. Um, because you hear that you hear they have to get toes removed and you know amputated and this is all because he just wasn't taking care of it right? He wasn't. Yeah, giving taking the pills taking the insulin.

28:51.76
Chet Galaska
Apparently he was doing nothing about it not watching his diet. Um, let me explain it to you to you this way. What happens if you take sugar and you put it into a glass of water and stir it up so it dissolves.

29:08.71
josephpannone
Right.

29:09.40
Chet Galaska
Water gets sticky when you have high blood sugar. You're doing the same thing to your blood. You are literally making your blood sticky and this leads to a plaque buildup in your blood vessels cause it's heart disease kidney failure. Ah. The amputations happen because the the capillaries plug up first and then it moves onto bigger blood vessels. That's what's happening. It doesn't happen overnight but it happens over maybe an 8 year period 10 years sometimes but once that damage happens Joey it's irreversible once it's there it's there so even though you may not feel the symptoms immediately. You better start working on it because the damage is happening. So I think that's what Jerry did I think he felt well gee I feel. Okay I feel a little rundown maybe but what the heck I'm getting older. You know everybody I know is feeling a little more rundown.

30:04.84
josephpannone
And.

30:06.58
Chet Galaska
You know so you rationalize all this stuff and next thing you know you're you're in the hospital getting up to limb amputated.

30:14.99
josephpannone
Um, on your web website. You have the challenge diabetes program. The Cdp tell me about it.

30:21.40
Chet Galaska
What I'm doing and what I'm trying to get out. There is this program that I've developed over the years here and in Springfield what I do is take the very basics of diabetes. Don't offer medical advice I just explain it just the way I'm explaining things to you right now I explained what diabetes is how it starts why it's dangerous what we can do to manage it. Ah for the fact that we don't deserve a stigma and explain why.

30:58.90
Chet Galaska
Ah, that's the first class there. There are 3 classes altogether and the second one I get into diet and why carbohydrates is so critical as I mentioned earlier you know one carb of carbohydrate is one carb of sugar you know drive that home because people might think that. Well.

31:11.60
josephpannone
M.

31:15.99
Chet Galaska
Like you eat bread. That's not so bad. It's not not a candy bar. In fact, it it is bad. It's as bad as a candy bar so we have to watch our diet and I I put it in terms that people can work with. For example, when we talk about watching your diet.

31:19.97
josephpannone
Wow.

31:34.60
Chet Galaska
You know people need to eat a balanced diet. Ah, but for a diabetic. The critical thing is the carbohydrates and I tell them that you don't have to worry about every food in the universe. The food you have to be concerned about are the ones that you're actually eating if you look at your own diet.

31:51.19
josephpannone
Um.

31:53.50
Chet Galaska
Your breakfasts are probably pretty much the same lunches are probably pretty much the same dinners will vary but over the course of a month and they'll repeat. So the ah universe of foods that you actually have to be concerned about is not that big and it's pretty easy usually to. To find the foods that are really causing your blood sugar to rise much like that woman I told you about earlier who was eating pasture with her husband every night that was low-hanging fruit for her in talking to a lot of diabetics. Another one is that a lot of people eat cold cereal for a snack at night.

32:17.71
josephpannone
8

32:31.50
Chet Galaska
And the very first class I I gave ah there was a guy who who told me he eats cocoa crispies every night before he goes to bed well cocoa crispies have a lot of sugar. But what's even more common Joey is raisin ram.

32:38.99
josephpannone
Oh yes.

32:49.60
Chet Galaska
Raisin brand ah people think their raisin brain is healthy. So it's got to be good for you. But I explained to them that you know the brand is a carbohydrate. The raisins are carbohydrate and then they sprinkle sugar run all of it just for the fun of it. So if you look at the nutrition label on the. A boxer Raisin brand. It's one of the worst cereals, you can eat so you know that's the thing that I try to drive home. You know when you look at your plate of food. Ask yourself where are the carbohydrates and you'll be surprised some some things are really high carbohydrate.

33:11.67
josephpannone
Ah.

33:26.25
Chet Galaska
Others you can need a lot of and it's not going to raise your blood sugar. But once you figure that out. Well, that's the first step to establishing the balance that you need to to control your blood sugars meat.

33:35.94
josephpannone
Um, how about natural cover howage like in vegetables I didn't mean to interrupt. Ah.

33:43.40
Chet Galaska
Sugar is sugar is sugar I know I get that a lot you know I can eat all the apples I want no, you can't you know, ah fructose is sugar just like glucose is and there's no get out of jail-f free car just because it's a healthier food. I Mean there's a lot of reasons to eat apples. Ah but lowering your blood sugar isn't one of them or look at it this way you mentioned orange juice you know where's orange juice come from you squeeze it out of an orange. So. There's There's a lot of lot of sugar in there. Ah so we talk about.

34:04.48
josephpannone
Is it 1

34:11.21
josephpannone
Yeah.

34:20.00
Chet Galaska
Ah, diet in that second class in the third class we talk about physical activity and Medications Physical activity is the second most critical thing to controlling blood sugars behind the diet exercise is really powerful.

34:28.23
josephpannone
Um.

34:39.67
Chet Galaska
If you exercise even 20 minutes a day doing moderate exercise meaning going for a walk or doing housework or playing with the kids. It all helps lower your your blood glucose. The reason for that is a blood cell I mean ah muscle cells. Excuse me. Muscle cells will absorb glucose directly out of the bloodstream and they'll either use it right away or they'll store it for future. In either case, it comes out of the bloodstream and active amount muscle does it even better The great thing is that you don't need a heavy workout a really moderate exercise like the things I mentioned they do a better job than really heavy exercise. Um, here's another complicating thing about diabetes I do like to work out hard and what I have found. Is if I work out really hard and my blood sugar drops because my muscles are absorbing that much sugar out of my my bloodstream. My liver will kick in and throw the the glucose back in so I'll have a heavy workout and I'll find my blood blood glucose is higher than what I started.

35:56.48
josephpannone
Wow.

35:58.97
Chet Galaska
You know, first time that happened I thought what's going on here. But then I I realized what was going on and and if I had a more moderate exercise that wouldn't happen. Um I mean you can still exercise heavy if you want to and and I still do that a lot of times just because I feel good when I do it.

36:12.13
josephpannone
A.

36:17.71
Chet Galaska
But it it may not be the best way to control your blood sugar on the other hand you know you take a little glucose I mean a little insulin and it'll go right down. So the exercise is something that that doesn't get talked about anywhere nearly as much as it should. Actually took a course that was sponsored by a local hospital. It was a Cand program that one of the pharma companies came up with the first class they gave was on the same sort of thing I talked about in my first class just the basics. The second one was on diet. And the third one was on Medications because a pharma company sells Medications Exercise wasn't brought up at all unless until I brought it up and since I brought it up. It was it was outside of the curriculum. So I brought it up and the people running the class were certified diabetes educators.

37:00.79
josephpannone
Wow.

37:13.87
Chet Galaska
They knew all about the exercise and they jumped right on and said yeah exercise is really powerful you you have to realize that so you know the exercise is part of what I do in the third class and the other one is medication I talk about it fairly briefly.

37:17.50
josephpannone
M.

37:31.92
Chet Galaska
Because it's really not my place to you know, suggest type two medications but the 1 thing I do emphasize is that when you take a medication you're going to be taking a fixed amount of it every day. So the variables are going to be the exercise and what you eat. If you're going to get that medication to work. You've got to standardize you know the carbs you eat and your physical activity to some degree. You know the better the more you can standardize it the better chance your doctor has a prescribing exactly the right medication and the right amount of medication what you can't do. Is ah sit on the sofa ah drinking soda and watching Tv all day one day and then you know going for a walk the following day. You know you know one day your if your blood close glucose is going to be really high and the following day. It might compensate for it. But it's a. You know it. It doesn't give your doctor a fair chance at helping you out. So if you do have to moderate things.

38:36.82
josephpannone
Um, and what happens when you sleep as a diabetic.

38:40.10
Chet Galaska
Well, that's that's an interesting question. There are actually 2 things that can happen. Well there are 3 things. Actually you can go to bed have a wonderful night's sleep and get up in the morning with no problem.

38:56.25
josephpannone
Great! good.

38:58.48
Chet Galaska
That's what happens most of the time Sometimes there's a thing called the Syoji effect where you go to bed with a slightly high blood sugar and your pancreas decides. You got to get that blood sugar down so you know with the type 2 of the pancreas still works to a great degree. So it'll it'll put some insulin to your blood with the result that it it drops down too low and what happens when it drops down too low is your liver says well that can't happen so it blasts that sugar into your bloodstream. So All of a sudden it goes from being too low to.

39:31.62
josephpannone
Wow.

39:37.12
Chet Galaska
Too high so you wake up with a high blood sugar so you know that's a ah funky thing that doesn't happen very often, but it it can't happen. The other thing that does happen just about every day is called the dawn effect. You're.

39:40.48
josephpannone
Um.

39:55.32
Chet Galaska
Circadian Rhythm is such that your body knows about what time it's going to get up. You know if you're like me right around the time I'm going to get up in the morning I'm going to be in a very light sleep and we're gonna open one eye and realize yeah it's about that time and you look at the clock and sure enough you know it's about that time. Ah, your body knows that internally and to get ready for the day. It automatically raises your blood sugar because it knows you're going to get out of bed and start doing stuff so that's not just diabetics that that happens to it that happens to everybody. It's just that diabetics are more cognizant of their blood sugar levels and. The non-diabetics are.

40:36.63
josephpannone
Um, but it's still important to get you know 6 to 8 you know a good night's sleep.

40:41.97
Chet Galaska
Absolutely yep that it's ah it's a critical thing.

40:44.55
josephpannone
I mean it seems to me chet that you know the 3 pillars for good health. Are you know nutrition exercise and sleep. So you know those those same things that you're talking about for dieticians really apply to everyone.

41:00.79
Chet Galaska
Oh I would think so yeah for diabetics it certainly applies you know. In fact, you know you really should be careful to eat balanced meals I'm I'm lucky. Ah I'm married for what.

41:09.42
josephpannone
M.

41:17.87
Chet Galaska
The math a long time it measures well over 40 years. The bigger, the numbers get the heart of the math is ah but anyway my wife is a good cook. Yeah, and I've been fortunate enough to get balanced meals for you know all of the 45 some odd years that we've been married so I've been getting that without thinking about it.

41:21.81
josephpannone
Sir.

41:37.38
Chet Galaska
But I think most people do need to think about it. You know you have to eat your vegetables and you do indeed carbohydrates you need protein. So that's something that everybody needs for the diabetic. It's just you know don't overdue the carbs. Um.

41:55.58
Chet Galaska
You know one thing I I suggest to people and this is perhaps the most distasteful thing I suggest that they do is that when you have a burger and fries. You know you got to get a lot of carbs in the hamburger roll and the fries are high carb items.

42:11.91
josephpannone
M.

42:14.56
Chet Galaska
With most restaurants you can substitute a vegetable. Usually it's broccoli and that's what I do fact I've I've eaten broccoli for so long now I actually look forward to it I like broccoli that wasn't always the case but now that's one of the switches that you can make and it helps you in both ways.

42:25.91
josephpannone
Um.

42:34.32
Chet Galaska
Number one. It doesn't raise your blood sugar number 2 is healthy for you. So you know that's just the kind of way you have to look at things.

42:36.20
josephpannone
E.

42:44.48
josephpannone
So when we encounter somebody and we find out that they're diabetic the right response and the right attitude and the right approach is.

42:56.10
Chet Galaska
Is to say I give you credit for fighting and here and here's one that might really throw a diabetic when diabetics talk to each other often. The first thing we ask is how's your a 1 c.

43:11.45
josephpannone
Um, yeah.

43:13.98
Chet Galaska
Now The a one C is the the gold standard for determining what your control of the blood sugar has been what it does is it measures the ah the blood over time. It's based on the amount of sugar that's attached to the.

43:32.89
Chet Galaska
Red blood cells and yeah, it gets pretty technicalal but anyway it'll tell you what the average blood sugar has been over the previous two or three months because it's not where they have to you know temporary highs and lows. It's the average blood sugar that you really have to watch out for. So the a one c is the measure of that and most of us get it checked every six months maybe every three months the target for diabetics is 7 % or under. So when you asked somebody what the a wasc was they might say. It's seven point two six point seven something like that and it's just something you talk about if somebody's under 7 you human thumbs up, you're doing a good job and if it's over that. Yeah, you might talk about why and they could probably tell you why? well.

44:13.60
josephpannone
Okay.

44:26.14
Chet Galaska
You know I've been been eating a lot or I haven't been able to exercise you know I've been working too hard I haven an exercise you know you can talk about things like that. But if you ask somebody what their a one C is they'll know that you know something about diabetics and most people don't and you'll probably find they're more than happy to talk about it.

44:27.33
josephpannone
A.

44:41.75
josephpannone
Um.

44:45.47
Chet Galaska
Because this is a big deal for all of us. Yeah, and most of us don't get a chance to share it with people.

44:51.50
josephpannone
I Know a couple of diabetics that I played cough with and I never really know what to say now I know what to say.

44:59.58
Chet Galaska
Yeah, do that I'd be curious to know what the reaction is you know if somebody yeah, a golfing buddy like like that that I had never talked to about it asked me that question I'd I'd be taking her back but you know.

45:14.70
josephpannone
Are.

45:17.47
Chet Galaska
But I would appreciate being asked the question by being I'd be appreciate knowing that my buddy was interested enough to learn what an a O and C even was yeah, you do it never ends.

45:26.57
josephpannone
Got to keep fighting it.

45:34.50
josephpannone
So I started my business chet in the 90 s and I was working way too hard. Ah and I was working 14 hour days exactly what we're talking about here I was eating terribly I wasn't exercising got myself up to three hundred and forty pounds and

45:50.56
Chet Galaska
Um.

45:51.12
josephpannone
The doctor said to me my daughter was just born and she said to me if you don't lose the weight. You're not gonna see her graduate so you know I took it upon myself for the next you know seven months and I lost about £130 and when I tell people this I can always see you know. Look in their face. How'd you do it? What's your secret everybody wants kind of that magic bullet I know you you talk about magic bullet and you know it's a quick answer to things and I say the 1 word answer is discipline. That's how I lost it I'm not going to tell you anything you don't know it's discipline. A discipline needs to go in treating diabetes. How does discipline play a role in your life check Alaska yeah.

46:33.27
Chet Galaska
Oh in my life I have to exercise discipline every day know it starts with the when I'm eating how much insulin I'm giving myself how much exercise and I'm doing. You know, figuring out what the impact of each one of those is on on the way I should behave. For example, if I'm going to work out I will eat a lot more for lunch than I normally would because I know I'm going to burn off those carbs.

47:07.30
josephpannone
Oh.

47:09.50
Chet Galaska
In fact, you know when when I go to work out. Ah healthy blood sugar is is under one eighty you know and you try to keep it lower than that. But when I go to workout I I know what to do to keep my blood sugar up around a 300 but when I work out. I'll do it for like 45 minutes and then you know the blood sugar will drop and drop and drop and then it'll keep dropping so when I come home for dinner because I I work out in the afternoon later in the afternoon I know my blood sugar is going to be like 101 it is probably going to be dropping from there. So. That's the kind of thing that you have to know but you have to be disciplined enough to put it into play. You know you can't forget about it and say well I don't feel like eating so much today. But I do feel like working out I'm just going to go ahead and work out where you well you were going to have one nasty low blood sugar if you do that.

48:05.99
josephpannone
Um.

48:06.57
Chet Galaska
So there are all kinds of things that that factor into it part of the discipline is also learning about it. Dr. Elliot Joscelyn he um. He was a diabetes pioneer. He started treating diabetics in the early nineteen hundreds before insulin was available and and he would just watch diabetics die there was nothing. He could do about it except tell them to just drop the carbohydrates and even he said you know I don't know why I'm telling I'm to do that.

48:30.89
josephpannone
Wow, it's.

48:40.11
Chet Galaska
They're going to die Anyway, Why don't you learn to meet the food they want and they at least have that. Ah, but he he was a real pioneer when Insulin became Available. He was one of the guys who really figured out how to use it so that it was not dangerous and it was dangerous because people had low blood sugar reactions. No idea why you know until they finally figured out there was because of the insulin but one of the things that that he said and this is a cord I use all the time is the diabetic who knows the most lives the longest now look at the things that I've told you already you know the SSimoji effect.

49:12.20
josephpannone
M.

49:19.35
Chet Galaska
The dawn effect how exercise operates Carbohyde you know you have to know all of this stuff and the more of it that you know the better your decisions will be and the better your control will be so all in all, it's a disease that really requires discipline and it's not.

49:21.63
josephpannone
A one say.

49:37.55
Chet Galaska
It's not like you take 1 tool in the morning you forget about it. You know it's something where all the other factors come into play all the time 24 7 3 65 forever

49:52.22
josephpannone
Um, what motivates you chet.

49:54.27
Chet Galaska
I today. Well always I have kids I've got 2 sons. They're both happily married I've got 3 grandchildren now. But my motivation early on was them. You know they were kids my my oldest was born the same year. Actually he was born ah a couple of months before I got diagnosed so I had diabetes every day that he's been alive. Ah so that's the motivation. You know what do you? do you.

50:19.42
josephpannone
Wow.

50:30.74
Chet Galaska
You know you you can deal with it. You know So What do you do get lazy and don't deal with it because you have you just don't feel like it. You know that's crazy and when I was diagnosed I just said to myself you were going to take injections every day for the rest of your life. Don't even think about not doing that and for all these years. It's a lot of days every day I've taken not just one but usually several injections So That's just the way it is you have to decide. That's the way it's going to be because diabetes isn't going to go Away. It's just how well can you manage it.

50:51.10
josephpannone
Um.

51:08.69
Chet Galaska
And you know something else. That's ah, that's worth knowing is that even today with with a lack of expertise in knowledge and technology we had over the past seventy or eighty years there were people alive today. Who have had diabetes for 80 years and they're still living now you know they didn't have anywhere near the technology that that we do but still they did what they could they reduced the carbs they exercised and and they then they made it There was one guy.

51:28.72
josephpannone
Wow.

51:44.77
josephpannone
Ah.

51:48.31
Chet Galaska
His ah name was Bob Krauss he became a type one diabetic and in 1925 about a year after his brother's brother's name was Jackie he was diagnosed a year earlier and he died from from type one. Well.

52:07.31
Chet Galaska
Krauss's mother decided she wasn't going to let that happen to him so she clamped down in his diet something fierce and he ate very very few carbs. Well she managed to keep him alive long enough for insulin to become available and when it became available. He would give himself injections he was I think he was six years old and he had these these old needles that were nowhere near as fine as as ours matter of fact, the needles are so big Joey that you they had to be big enough to run a wire down through them to clean them I mean nasty imagine a 6 ix-year old kid giving himself a shot like that every day. Well.

52:38.73
josephpannone
Um, well.

52:45.73
Chet Galaska
Bob Krauss did did that he lived to have a family. He became an engineering professor at the university of washington he was an engineer on space projects during the 1960 s he had a long happy retirement. And he died when he was 92 years old so people can live so you can't look at that yourself and say gee I can't do that. Well yeah, you can it gets down to discipline like you said Bob Krass was highly disciplined. You know what he would do every day.

53:04.17
josephpannone
Well.

53:17.22
josephpannone
Mm.

53:22.73
Chet Galaska
He would eat nuts and and prunes for for breakfast and salads in in the evening so he was keeping his carbs on all the way through his life. What he used to say is that I don't I don't live too eat I Eat to live. And so he just put food on the back burner and and he managed to do it So you know it's a question of Attitude. You know it. It does take discipline but your life's on the line and and the welfare of of people you love is on the line too. So You know you do what you got to do.

53:59.93
josephpannone
Um, and how do you measure success.

54:04.95
Chet Galaska
I with the diabetes ah diabetes success is a low a one c you know mine is my generally lu runs 6 6 six seven so I do pretty well with it. Um.

54:09.91
josephpannone
Right.

54:20.81
Chet Galaska
But if you really want to know what I think success is it's raising a family of decent people who are honest and work hard and follow the Golden rule. Um, so far So Good. Um. So That's success.

54:41.60
josephpannone
Absolutely wonderful Chat I was excited when you accepted this I think the diabetes community we need to know more about Them. We need to support them more I Really appreciate the insight and I love your mission I mean you're out there you you wrote a book. The website you do these Classes. You're retired now so you could be doing other things but you've you know, dedicated to this. It's It's very remarkable. How can we get in touch with you. Anybody listening.

55:11.98
Chet Galaska
You can go to my website. It's at ww wwww dot challenge diabetes dot u s it's not dot com it's dot US and you'll find some information there I'm working on the website as we speak.

55:32.79
Chet Galaska
There's information on there about if you would like to do the challenge diabetes program in your city. You can contact me and and we'll get that done but I'm also videotaping the whole course so that I can put that. Online. Um I'm planning on' I'm getting it out there I'm going to charge for probably going to charge nineteen bucks for an hour program that will have all the information that you and I just talked about plus a lot more in it. But you can get it. Ah, wash it yourself, maybe bring it to your book club or your church or civic organization. Whatever you know, show it to people and and just by watching that you'll get a much better idea. So what diabetes is all about.

56:27.40
Chet Galaska
And along with that I'm going to be putting in suggest questions and and the answers to a lot of the questions so it'll be a good thing for people to do. But I'm all I'm trying to do is get this out as widely as I can however I can so we'll we'll see how that goes.

56:42.94
josephpannone
Very very cool chet. Thank you again so much for your time I hope one day we get to see each other face to face since we're so close and you know have a cup of tea or something.

56:55.88
Chet Galaska
Let's do that Joe I I think that would be great and you're right we are we were about as I mentioned earlier we're about as close as it gets I've had people I get a lot of people from Canada and l a and no place. No place close to me.

57:00.95
josephpannone
A.

57:08.31
josephpannone
Yeah, the great northeast a lot of small states. But we're yeah, we're 1 big 1 big unit here. Thank you so much chet and you be well.

57:16.67
Chet Galaska
You too joy take care of yourself.