In early October, I stopped taking my diabetes medication (Januvia) as I was having an increasingly hard time walking up and down stairs. I began to feel really old... I wondered I was developing arthritis - but an online search of Januvia's side effects revealed that 2% of people on Januvia experience side effects of muscle swelling and joint stiffness...
I don't think that's causing it, my family doctor said when I consulted her. It's quite rare. But if you want to, you can go off the medication and see what happens.
I stopped taking Januvia and gradually the stiffness went away.
I dreaded the thought of taking diabetes medication again. I've tried two different ones, and both have had negative side effects for me.
What about a vegetarian diet? I wondered... Statistically fewer vegetarians have type 2 diabetes...
So around the time I stopped taking Januvia, I began my vegetarian experiment. Vegan diets (with no animal products) apparently make a bigger difference for type 2 diabetics - but vegans don't drink milk. With my osteopenia (thinning of the bones), I didn't want to eliminate milk products from my diet...
As I have for years, I continued testing my fasting blood sugar levels every morning... The readings didn't change much on my vegetarian diet...
So on my birthday weekend, with guests visiting, I started eating meat again.
It was interesting to see that, over the past five months, one thing did improve my blood sugar readings... That was... hanging out with my granddaughter! Keeping up with a three-year-old - moving about more - apparently has strong therapeutic value!!
My life must be too sedentary, I told Terry. We either need to be come more active - or I need a job where I'm on my feet a lot!
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