Demystifying Diabetes: A Kandid Chat on Managing and Understanding the Condition w/Chet Galaska

Kandidly Kristin

Hey, hey, hey. Podcast Nation. It is your girl, Kandidly Kristin, and this is The Kandid Shop, your number one destination for candid conversations. If you're a new listener, welcome, and if you're a returning listener, welcome back and thanks for your support. 

So today I'm sitting down with the creator of the Challenge Diabetes program and author of the diabetes book what Everyone Should Know, Chet Galaska. Welcome, welcome, welcome, Chet, to the Kandid Shop. Thank you and thanks for having me. I'm so glad you're here. It's such an important topic and so I'm a stats person. I love like data, so I did a little research and we all know that diabetes is like a prevalent disease in the us, but according to, to the CDC, an estimated 38.4 million people of all ages, or roughly 11.6 percent of the population, had diabetes in 2003. It's more common among American Indians, pacific Islanders, African American and Asian-Americans. I was surprised about the Asian Americans, so it's an important topic. 

Chet Galaska

Yeah, I've had diabetes myself since 1981. I've got type 1, but most people have type 2. Type 1s are only about 5% of the total number of diabetics. 95% are type 2. So that's really the big issue. The reason I'm doing this is that I came to realize how poorly most people understand diabetes, and much of what they believe about it is wrong. I won't bother explaining how I got to this point, but I discovered that I could explain type 1 because I had it for a long time. But then when I talked to people about type 2 and looked into the questions I was asked, I realized that I believed a lot of untrue things about type 2. 

And that's when I realized that our society has a real problem with misinformation about diabetes. So that's why I wrote the books. I developed the Challenge Diabetes Program. I presented it to a lot of groups here in my local area with the participation of a lot of reputable places like the YMCA, the University of Massachusetts, springfield College, bay State Medical Center, and I found that it really helped people a lot. Well, I did this up until COVID, and when COVID happened, everything just blew up. 

So all of a sudden, I couldn't meet meeting groups and the medical people were all focused on COVID and everything else was kind of put on the back shelf. But during that time I became aware of podcasts and I realized that I can reach a whole lot more people by doing podcasts than I ever could by doing small groups. So that's what I've been doing for the past year or so. 

Kandidly Kristin

Nice. Well, I'm certainly glad that you're here with me today, so I do have a question for you. You mentioned misinformation. Can you speak to, in your experiences and in what you do, what are some of the most common misconceptions that people have about diabetes and type 2 particularly? 

Chet Galaska

Sure, the biggest one is that being overweight causes diabetes. The fact is that if you look at the National Institutes of Health statistics, they tell you that about 70% of us are overweight but only about 10% of us have diabetes. So what's up with that? Another thing is that there are a lot of thin people who exercise and watch their weight, who become diabetic. So there's something more going on than just your overweight. So that is a huge one, Kristin, and most everybody believes there's that connection. I know a lot of people who work to keep their weight down expressly because they don't want to become diabetic to keep their weight down expressly because they don't want to become diabetic. But the fact is that both type 1 and type 2 start when a genetic predisposition encounters something in the environment that triggers it. 

Once you get that, then weight becomes a factor in managing your blood sugars and what you eat becomes a big factor. But the thing is that people don't bring this on themselves, but because our society thinks you did it to yourself because you're overweight or because you ate too much sugar or you didn't exercise enough. There's a stigma out there because people really do think that diabetics are like heavy smokers who get lung cancer. You know, you did all these bad things and you brought it on yourself. So there you go, but none of that stuff is justified. Smokers who get lung cancer. You know you did all these bad things and you brought it on yourself. So there you go, but none of that stuff is justified. And it's really a crime because diabetes is not easy to deal with. It's hard. It's 24-7, 365. There is no medication that fixes it, despite what you may glean from television ads that seem to imply that there are no happier people than diabetics on the face of the earth. Right, you know, it's amazing to me. 

Kandidly Kristin

That's so true. 

Chet Galaska

But I have looked at the medication inserts for every single medication that's out there and every single one of them says that they're to be used in conjunction with diet and exercise. And even the ads that are out there today for Ozempic. If you pay attention and look at the disclaimers, the very first disclaimer that comes up in that ad is it's got to be used in conjunction with diet and exercise. But people lose track of that. But the fact is, no matter what medication you take, if you're going to eat a lot of carbohydrates that turn into sugar or sugar itself, you're going to have trouble dealing with diabetes. You have got to watch what you eat and you've also got to do a little exercise, because you know that helps control your blood sugars as well. So you know overall what I'm trying to do and this is my mantra. 

I'm trying to create a society, an informed society, that respects diabetics who fight the disease and motivates those who don't to take it seriously, because that's where we are. 

You know, if diabetics got the same sort of respect that people who fight other serious diseases do, I think it would help a lot, rather than having people walk around feeling guilty about the fact that they have this disease Right. In fact, one of the coolest things, Kristin, that happens when I do the courses is that usually somebody will come up to me afterwards and tell me that the best thing I told them was that they did not bring this on themselves. They tell me this and you can see the guilt just drip off their faces because they've been carrying around this burden, that they really thought that what they did because they were a little overweight is what caused their diabetes, and when I explained that it didn't, it's like okay, now I feel so much better about myself and now I can explain to other people who may have questions about it too. You know, don't be looking down your nose at me, you know, just listen to what the facts are. 

Kandidly Kristin

Listen to what the facts are Right, right. 

Chet Galaska

So the job here is to teach everybody, whether you've got diabetes or not, what the basic facts are and set the stage for people to deal with this more effectively. 

Kandidly Kristin

Yeah, ending of it like the whole pancreas and carbs, turning to sugar, are kind of to the average person, kind of complex. So how do you approach demystifying and simplifying that medical information for your audience like the people? 

Chet Galaska

Yeah, what I do first of all is I explain how normal people's bodies operate, and I'll do that right now. 

Kandidly Kristin

Okay. 

Chet Galaska

Well, people who don't have diabetes. When they eat food, it gets digested into a sugar called glucose. The glucose winds up in the bloodstream, where it gets carried all around the body. Your body cells need glucose for energy, and when the sugar is detected in the bloodstream by your pancreas, it produces a hormone called insulin. Insulin's job is to be a key that opens up the cell walls to allow the glucose to go from the blood into the cells. Pancreas produces just the right amount, so it covers the sugar that's in your blood at any given time. Now what happens is two things One is that the cells absorb the glucose and it gets the energy it needs, but the other is that when it takes it in, the glucose leaves the bloodstream. So there's this constant balancing act going on. Where your blood sugar goes up somewhat, the insulin gets produced, the glucose goes into the cells and your blood glucose level stays in a healthy range. 

Now some people wonder why sugar is such a problem. If your body needs the sugar anyway, what's the problem if you have more of it in your blood? Well, the easiest way to explain that is to ask yourself what happens when you take a glass of water and mix sugar into it. Well, what happens is the water gets sticky. Well, the same thing happens in your blood. Your blood gets sticky and because of that it creates plaque that builds up on your blood vessel walls. It damages every part of your blood. Your blood gets sticky and because of that it creates plaque that builds up on your blood vessel walls. It damages every part of your body. You know, people have toes and feet and legs amputated because the blood vessels down there have the lower blood pressure and they get damaged by the sugar first but causes kidney disease, blindness, I mean. All kinds of things happen because of that excess sugar. So it is critical for us to try to manage that and keep it down as low as we can. 

Now. With diabetes, as I mentioned, there are two main kinds. With type 1, it's an autoimmune disease that has caused the body to kill off the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. So in my case I have type 1. My pancreas doesn't produce insulin, so I have to take insulin directly. It's the only way to manage type 1. It's got to be taken by injection because the insulin breaks down in digestion, so you can't take it that way. 

Type 2 is actually a different disease. It starts with a condition called insulin resistance, which is exactly what the name says. Your cells become resistant to insulin so that it takes more and more insulin to overcome the resistance that allows the glucose to go from the blood into the cells. It gets progressively worse to the point where your pancreas has worked overtime and the cells start dying off in the pancreas so that it no longer can produce enough insulin to overcome the resistance. It's a tough situation because the insulin resistance is getting worse, which means that it needs more insulin. At the same time, your pancreas has lost its ability to produce as much, so you wind up high blood sugars at that point, and that's when you really have to start managing it. 

Kandidly Kristin

Right. So let me ask you a question, because this is always like is always like trying to, because both my brother and sister are both diabetic. My sister has to take insulin, my brother does not, so where? And I always thought my sister, because she had to take insulin, was type one, and I recently learned she said no, I'm type two. Oh, I thought you know. I thought that was the distinction. Type 1s have to take the insulin, type 2s are diet and meds. So what's the difference between a type 2 that has to take insulin and one that doesn't? 

Chet Galaska

Well, I'll explain that. But what you just brought up, that's another piece of the misinformation that's out there about diabetes. A lot of people think what you've thought. What happens is that people's pancreases have different capacities. If your pancreas still has a lot of capacity to produce insulin, there are oral drugs you can take that will do a variety of things. They might prompt the pancreas to produce even more insulin. 

Your liver produces sugar naturally. A lot of people don't realize that, but it does. It makes its own sugar and it releases it when it thinks you need it. So that's something totally beyond your control. But there are medications that will inhibit the liver from producing and releasing that sugar. Others will slow down digestion. So they do a whole lot of different things. 

As long as you have the capacity left in your pancreas to produce enough insulin with that help, then you can stay on the oral medications. But the insulin resistance still gets progressively worse when it gets to a point where you no longer have enough capacity for the drugs to work. That's when you take insulin, because insulin will fix it. I mean, I've been alive for the last 40 some odd years because I take insulin, so that will work. A lot of people think that if they had to take insulin because they're type 2, then they've failed. But that's really not true, because just by its nature it gets worse, and the longer you have it, the more of a chance there is that you're going to need to take insulin. 

Kandidly Kristin

At some point Okay. 

Chet Galaska

Okay. 

Kandidly Kristin

Now that makes sense to me. That is a huge piece of misinformation that's floating around in the general population about diabetes. So, Chet, talk to me a little bit about your challenge diabetes program and how it kind of differs from other diabetes management programs. 

Chet Galaska

Sure Well, it is different. What I do is take the basic facts about diabetes and I explain them to people. The things that we've already talked about. Those are part of the program. 

A lot of people who have diabetes don't really know how the disease works. So, with what I explained to you about how normal bodies operate and why diabetics have high blood glucose levels, it gives people a base of knowledge so that they at least understand what the medications are doing and what their role is in trying to manage food and exercise. And then I get into the nuts and bolts of managing food. You can read all kinds of books and, believe me, I have read a lot about diabetes and it just gets so complicated, Kristin, that it's hard to wrap your head around it. It's kind of you get so much information you're not even sure what actions you should take. So I simplify it. I've been doing these things for a long time and it's really made to be more complicated than it needs to be. 

With diet, what you need to do is understand what foods are going to raise your blood sugar and which ones won't. The big factor is knowing what carbohydrates are. Here's another little known fact One gram of carbohydrate and carbohydrates are things like bread or muffins or candy or whatever. One gram of carbohydrate digests into one gram of sugar, so it's one to one. You know you may think that I'm eating bread, so I'm not eating sugar. In fact you are, because you know you may think that I'm eating bread so I'm not eating sugar. In fact you are, because you know let's say carbohydrate on the package and it'll tell you no sugar added, but the fact is that the carbohydrate itself is going to be sugar. So you have to look at that. 

But what makes it confusing is that many diets get into all kinds of different food choices and look out for this and watch out for that. The way I explain it is that the only foods you have to worry about are the ones that you're actually eating. And when you think about it, your diet is not all that complicated. For most of us, our breakfasts are pretty much the same every day. Lunches are pretty much the same. Dinners will vary more, but over the course of a month we generally repeat the same things. 

So, you know, the universe of foods that you have to be concerned about is really not that big, and what you can do is identify where the carbohydrates are coming from, and once you do that, you can cut down on the amount of that you're eating and replace it with things that are not going to raise your blood sugar. One great example was there was a woman who took the course and she had high blood sugar all the time. She said no matter what she does, she can't seem to get it down. Well, it turned out that her husband worked the second shift. He liked to have supper when he came home after work and she liked to eat with him. He liked pasta. So she was eating pasta every night and then going to bed. So, number one, pasta is very high in carbohydrates. So when she's eating that she's really boosting her blood sugar up, and then she's going to bed, which means she can't do the physical activity that might help to drop it a little bit. So I suggested to her that, just for the next week, eat something other than pasta. You know, let your husband eat it, but you know you just don't eat it all week. Let's see what happens. So the next week she came in and said her blood sugars are down around 100. So in her case, you know, the pasta was that was the low-hanging fruit. I mean, that was the thing that was causing her blood sugars to rise. So now she knows. But she also understands that carbohydrates come in lots of different forms. 

But what I suggest to people is what I do when I have food. I look at my plate and I ask myself where are the carbs? And you know, you identify them. And if you're going to be, you know, doing some exercise, yeah, you can eat the carbs and the exercise will drop your blood sugar anyway. You know, if you can plant a head like that, you can eat those carbs. 

But as a general rule, you try to minimize the amount of carbs you're eating and fill up on other things. You can fill up on salad, for example, but other things, you know, proteins like meats, fish, eggs, chicken. You know all of those high protein foods won't raise your blood sugar at all. So if you can fill up on chicken, you know, and lower the amount of bread you're eating, well, that's the kind of trade-off you need to make. Yeah, I try to bring it down to a level like that where it's easy to understand. I also teach people how to identify carbs. There are a lot of ways to do it. You can look at a nutrition label If you're going to a restaurant. Most restaurants now will tell you what the carbohydrate content is of the food you're going to eat. You can ask Alexa or ask Siri, and then they'll tell you. 

In fact, I said this Do you have Alexa near you there? 

Kandidly Kristin

I don't. 

Chet Galaska

Good, because what I did with one podcast where I said, yeah, you could ask Alexa, you can just say Alexa how many carbs in an ear of corn? And he had Alexa. Alexa jumped up and said no, there are 25 carbs in an ear of corn. Really easy ways to find out what the carb content is. But getting back to the fact that our diets don't change that much, once you identify the carbs in the things that you're actually eating, you'll remember that. So all of a sudden, you've got a strategy here for helping to control your blood sugars. 

Kandidly Kristin

Yeah, and a pretty easy one. But managing diabetes it can be challenging, especially for people who are kind of sedentary like me. So how does your program and your book kind of help people manage and support like sustainable changes that they can live with? 

Chet Galaska

Sure. Well, here's another source of misunderstanding. The medications all say diet and exercise, and with diet people think of a rigid diet where you've really got to watch what you're eating and you know you can't have much flexibility, as I just explained. You know it doesn't have to be that complicated and it doesn't have to be that rigid either. With exercise it's the same sort of way, you know, we think about going to the gym, or, you know, running five miles or all this strenuous stuff. You know that's what we think of as being exercise. But in the context of diabetes, strenuous exercise is not really what you're looking for. 

Moderate exercise is actually better for controlling blood sugar than heavy exercise is. By moderate exercise I'm talking about things that you just do every day anyway Walking around the neighborhood, vacuuming, climbing a set of stairs, playing with the kids. These kinds of moderate activities are the things that bring your blood sugar down, and those are not all that hard to do, especially when it's recommended that you do 150 minutes of exercise a week. Well, you know, as long as you're not sitting around all day doing nothing, you know you're doing some exercise. In fact, the definition of exercise that I use is that it's anything that makes your skeleton move. 

So think about that. You know, any kind of moderate activity that you do moving your skeleton, that counts as exercise. And really to do 150 minutes a week is not a big deal, especially since you don't have to do it all at one time. You do 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, five minutes there. You know, I mean you add up to 150 minutes before too long, right? So the thing is you really just can't be sedentary. You just can't be sitting around all day, especially if you're sitting around all day eating carbohydrates. 

Kandidly Kristin

You mentioned Alexa, so that's kind of a good segue into technology. It is becoming increasingly integrated into a lot of medical management, including diabetes. So does your program leverage technology at all? So does your program leverage technology at all, and what impact do you see technology having a long term and improving outcomes? 

Chet Galaska

Well, I don't teach anything about technology but I do use it. Ok, you know I really teach the basics, Kristin, and you know as a certain point you need professional medical help. You know you really can't do this without their help and the technology is part of that. They will recommend what they think is the best thing for you. But the technology today is really amazing. 

When I got diabetes back in 1981, we didn't even have blood glucose monitors where you could stick your finger, get a drop of blood and then test it and know what your blood sugar was. The best we could do, even that recently, is to use a product called test tape. This was a yellow paper that came at a dispenser like a tape measure, and you would pull out a few inches of it and then you would dip it in a sample of urine and it would say yellow if the blood sugar was low, but it would turn various shades of green if it was high and it would turn black. If it turned black, you knew your blood sugar was really high. But that was old information because when that urine was produced that was over the last hour or two. So that was old information because when that urine was produced. That was over the last hour or two, so that was old information. It wasn't really what your blood sugar was right. 

Now Fast forward to today I use a continual glucose monitor and what that does is it's attached to my body. You don't even feel it, it's painless to insert and it just stays there for about 10 days, and it radios my blood sugar in real time to a device I carry in my pocket. And if I want to know what my blood sugar is right this minute, all I have to do is pull that thing out of my pocket and look at it. 

So think about that Just knowing what my blood sugar is. You know, in my case I use insulin so I could have a low blood sugar. If it's low, then I eat something, if it's high, then I know well, you better go for a walk, you know, do something active to try to knock that down. So it gives you actionable information right at that moment, which you know. 40 years ago that was science fiction. 

You know now everybody can have access to this. It's amazing, just amazing. The technology keeps getting better. My endocrinologist told me that there's a new development on the devices that I use, where everything is smaller. It's not big anyway the way it is, but it's even smaller than the device I've got now. So it just gets better all the time. But here's the thing Whatever the technology is, the diabetic has got to understand how their disease works, what foods to eat, uh, the fact that you need to do some sort of physical activity. They need to know these things because none of this stuff the medications, the technology, none of it works without the but diabetics, active participation, yeah, and that you know as much as I'm just trying to get people to understand that. You know a lot of people, a lot of people really do think that all you got to do is take a pill and you know first thing in the morning and you're good to go and nothing is further. Nothing is further from the truth. So you know that's that's got to change. 

Kandidly Kristin

So you know that's got to change. So, chet, let me ask you this what part do you feel like complementary or alternative medicines factor in to diabetes management? You know there are a whole group of people who just are pharma averse and don't really like taking medicines. Are there any supplements or, I don't know, herbs or whatever that people can take to help manage their diabetes? 

Chet Galaska

Well, that I don't know. I'm really not well-versed in any of that. However, there are a lot of diabetics who manage their blood glucose levels just using diet and exercise, and that's about as natural as it gets. 

If you're eating a lot of healthy foods and you're avoiding the high carb cakes and ice cream and all that, you're not going to raise your blood sugar much. So right there, by restricting your diet, you can keep your blood glucose level from getting high in the first place, but then, if it does, you can go for a walk and knock it back down. And people can do this. Most people don't, because it really does take a lot of willpower to do that. So most people do wind up taking medications. But the diet and exercise is certainly the place to start. And here's another thing to keep in mind If you have just been diagnosed with prediabetes, that means that your pancreas still has a lot of capacity a lot of capacity. So if you start watching your diet and exercise right off the bat and you keep it up, you are going to avoid putting the kind of stress on your pancreas that it would get if you didn't do those things. So the chances of being able to avoid medication are much greater if you start early and stick with it. 

Kandidly Kristin

Yep, yep, I agree. So tell me, when you wrote the book, what was your vision or your key message that you hoped that readers would take away from it, and or participants, what was your hope that they would gain from the program? 

Chet Galaska

I wanted people to understand the basic facts. I don't get into the weeds with medications or anything like that because I'm not a medical person and I'm not qualified to talk about it, but I do want them to know the things that you and I have talked about. You know how it works and the basics of what to do about it and why, and the fact that these things are doable. A lot of people don't even try to deal with their diabetes because they think it's too hard, and it certainly appears that way, but I try to simplify it enough that people realize that it isn't impossible. You know I've had type one for do the math 43 years so far and I'm doing fine still. You know I have to manage it 24-7, 365, but I can do that, along with millions of other people who do the same thing. So I want people to know that they can can do it. But I also need them to know how dangerous this thing really is there was a one guy I talked about in the book. 

Uh, because in the book and in the class I use real life stories to illustrate the points. There was a guy back in 1925 when insulin was discovered and his younger brother had gotten diabetes before he did and he died from it. His brother, I think, was six years old when he died and this guy got diabetes but luckily for him insulin became available. So as a child he started doing the injections and he really restricted his diet. He was eating practically no carbs and he was very active. Well, he survived and he did very well. He became a college professor at the University of Washington. He was an engineer, worked on the space program, did all these tremendous things, had a family and he lived to the age of 92. So here's a guy who had none of the technology that we have today that makes life so much easier, but he managed to survive his entire life by doing the basics of diet and exercise and taking the insulin he needed. So if a guy like that can live to 92 in good health, then why in the world wouldn't we be able to do it with all this, this tremendous help we've got? So you know, that's part of what I try to do, too, is to motivate people to, for them to know that this can be done. Another part of that same story, by the way, that this can be done Another part of that same story, by the way is about a woman who was the heiress to the Johnson Johnson fortune. 

She had the best medical care in the world and she became a socialite. A party girl in New York City didn't watch her medications and she wound up dying at the age of 30 because she didn't manage her diabetes. So it can go either way. You know, if you're committed to managing it, you can live a long, healthy life, but if you're not going to do a thing about it, you are going to be in a world of trouble. All right, and keep in mind that diabetes untreated diabetes is a fatal disease. And keep in mind that diabetes untreated diabetes is a fatal disease. It used to be that in the old days, doctors would have people called water testers and what they would do is taste the urine of patients, and if they detected sugar, then the doctor would just give up because he knew there was nothing he could do to help these people. They were just going to die. 

Kandidly Kristin

So that's the way the disease is, yeah, serious stuff. Wow, it is. It really is serious stuff. And I know a lot of people don't take it seriously. My sister just because they're my personal references for diabetes her and my brother. She lost the toes on one of her feet Just because she, prior to that, she's been diabetic. I've 30 plus years since she was pregnant with her second child and she hasn't always been that compliant, you know what I mean, and I think that really kind of shook her up and woke her up. She had a heart attack, she had a mild stroke and now she's like really fastidious about, you know, watching what she eats and all that stuff and hopefully, hopefully, that will you know, lengthen her life. But it could have, you know, she could have kept her toes. 

Chet Galaska

Well, yeah, you know that's what I was saying before about the sugar in the water. You know that's what your body's been dealing with and you know now that she's getting better at it, it certainly is going to help. It's certainly going to help. Yeah, she's getting better at it. It certainly is going to help. It's certainly going to help. It's just too big. You know, Kristin, that's the kind of tragedy that I see. 

If people just understood early on what they were up against and started doing the right things right away, they would avoid that. Your sister could have avoided it probably if she started right when she was diagnosed. But but they don't understand. And yeah, really, that's that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to get people to understand and to get non-diabetic people around them to also understand. Yes, people need support. By the way you, when I talk about avoiding carbs, you don't have to avoid every carb all the time. Well, we all like foods that are high carbohydrate. Obviously they taste great, right, I mean, we all like pasta, you know. We like ice cream, you know I do too, and I eat those things sometimes too. 

The thing to understand is that temporary high blood sugars are not what do the damage. What does the damage is average high blood sugars. So if your blood sugars are running really high all of the time, you're in trouble. But if you have a spike once in a while because you fell off the wagon, you felt like having that ice cream sundae, you know you let it spike and enjoyed the sundae and then got your blood sugar back down and then went back to your regular diet. You know that's fine, that's not going to kill you. 

I've had people freak out because their blood sugar got high, you know at one point, and I tell them that that's really not what's going to cause you the damage. You know. As long as you get back in control, you should be fine. In fact, there's a key test for determining your control. It's called the hemoglobin A1C. It's referred to as the A1C for the most part, and what that does is it tells you what your average blood sugar has been for the previous two to three months, and that's the critical factor. It's not like doing a finger stick that says, gee, my blood sugar is high right now. I'm going to die. 

It's the long-term average that is critical and whatever you're doing, if you're keeping your A1C low, then you're in pretty good shape. So if you're diabetic, that is a key thing you need to know, and if you're diabetic, your doctor will automatically be doing that A1C. He'll tell you that every time you have a checkup, so that's a critical thing that every time you have a checkup. 

Kandidly Kristin

So that's a critical thing. And is there like one A1C number, like a one size fits all or it's different for different genders and ages.? 

Chet Galaska

Well, 5.7 or lower is no diabetes. That would be a normal A1C. 5.7 to 6.4 is pre-diabetes. Anything over 6.4 is considered diabetes. So it's all functions of the same underlying cause. The insulin resistance is there. The question is, how well can you control your blood sugar? So if it's pre-diabetic it's high, but not real high. If it's diabetic, it means it's considerably high. Now here's an interesting thing. We can tolerate moderately high blood sugars For diabetics if you have a A1C of seven or lower. That is really good control. So your doctor will be thrilled with that, even though that is higher than the diabetic threshold, because at least it's low enough that you're not going to suffer the consequences. So there is some leeway here. You know diabetics glucose lovers are always going to be higher than normal. 

In my experience, I don't think it's even possible to have them normal, but they don't need to be, and that's something else you need to understand. You know, don't kill yourself just because you don't have normal blood sugars. There are practically no diabetics that have a normal blood sugar. 

Kandidly Kristin

Right, got it, got it. So, chet, what plans, future plans, forward looking projects do you have like in this field of diabetes? Education, management, advocacy, a new book or a TEDx or something what you got going on? 

Chet Galaska

Glad you asked. I spent the last year developing some videos that lay out the entire course that I was giving in person, and I finished them up literally a few weeks ago. So now that that work is done, I've got them on my website. People can access them. Nice, I've got them on my website, people can access them and I'd like to give them away, but I've got expenses and I can't do that. But you can download these for well, one or two of them. They're $4.99 and you can get the basic stuff that people really need to know in less than a half an hour. There are two videos. They're each about a half an hour. There are two videos. They're each about a half an hour. 

But what I really want people to do, Kristin, is I would like them to take those videos and watch them in groups. If you belong to a church or a civic group we've got a book club, any group whatsoever that you have. If people could watch those videos in a one-hour meeting, they would spend the first half watching the video but the other half having a discussion, and that would very much replicate the kind of courses I was doing in person, because a lot of times the best things came from the people who were watching the course, so I'm hoping that people will do that and at $4.99, if you've got a group of 10 people, probably you can afford that and that's really what I'm hoping will happen. 

You're a person of color. With the University of Massachusetts, they had me teach a course to the Men of Color Health Awareness Program. 

These were all black guys who came in and we would meet on a Saturday morning and I would teach the basic course to them, and with the things that I learned from them, I realized that in the Black community there really needs to be more of an understanding about this than what there is, and churches in the Black community are tremendously popular places and I would love to have those churches show this program. 

You know, like I said, it's not a budget buster, and if somebody wanted to contact me, they can go to my website and use the Contact Us page and I'll be more than happy to talk to anybody who wants to do the course. If they want some instruction on how best to present it, I'm more than happy to do that, but I think that places like the churches could be really powerful in getting the word out. So that's what I'm doing At this point. I've got the materials out there that I want to share, and my goal is to get on as many podcasts as I can, use social media and try to develop a market for it. I use the word market it's not because I'm in this to make the money. This is my retirement project, right, but I want to have as many people aware of it as possible and then see it and then create that informed community I talked about earlier. 

You know we need an inform community that respects diabetics who fight it and motivates those who don't to take it seriously. That's, the more people who get that message, the better chance we have of doing that. 

Kandidly Kristin

And I think, yes, podcasts will go a long way to get misinformation in the ears or on the screens, because I'm audio only, but some are video too, of the people that need to hear it, and it's a non-threatening way, like you don't have to ask your doctor or feel stupid for asking too many questions, you can just digest it at your own pace and get some information. So I think it's awesome, awesome, awesome, and I am super duper happy that we got to sit down and have this chat. It's a personal topic that's important to me and, just in general, it's important for people to be aware. 

Chet Galaska

Well, yeah, I think so. Can I just give my website address here? 

Kandidly Kristin

Well wait, nope, nope, nope, nope, because that comes after we pay 10 Kandid Questions. These are super duper random questions that I took from this big list I found, and it's just a fun way to end the chat. And the 10th question is always the same, and that's when you get to shamelessly self-promote anything and everything that you want. Okay, all right, are you ready? Yes, all right. Question number one what did you want to be when you were a kid and why? 

Chet Galaska

I wanted to be a doctor Because when I was a child and you got sick, the doctor would come to your house and it was always the coolest thing. Dr Coons would come in with his black medical bag and you know he would. He would check you out and as often as not, he'd give you a shot of penicillin. But my mother really he was. She was so happy to see him and he was so well respected and you know, when you did what he told you to do, you actually got better. So I thought that was pretty, pretty cool. We didn't make a living, so that's what I wanted to be. 

Kandidly Kristin

Yeah, all right, all right. Question number two road trip or plane ride? 

Chet Galaska

Two road trip or plane ride? Interesting question. I like road trips because you see things that you cannot see from the air. Indeed, I like going down roads that are not well-traveled, and so I enjoy that. I enjoy meeting people that way. On the other hand, with air travel, you go to a much bigger variety of places, so I guess it's a combination. My ideal vacation or trip would be fly somewhere and then do the road trip. 

Kandidly Kristin

Yeah, that sounds really good In fact, that's actually what I do. 

Chet Galaska

When my wife and I go away, we will spend a week somewhere. We'll just drop ourselves in and rent a car, and that's what we do. We basically do a road trip in that whole area and you really get to do some unique local things that you wouldn't do otherwise. So it really is a combination. 

Kandidly Kristin

Yes, I like that answer All right. Question number three what's the most valuable lesson you've learned from a mistake or failure in your life? 

Chet Galaska

Keep on trucking, keep on trucking. You get knocked down, you learn from it and you move on. You know and you don't ruminate about the failures that you've had. You know one of the things about being human that makes it so hard is that we typically beat ourselves up more than anybody else does and when you have failed something, or if you said something that you wish you could take back. 

There are all kinds of things that we beat ourselves up over, and it's not healthy to do that. You know. You just got to realize that nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes. If it was that bad, then don't learn from it and don't do it again, exactly. 

Kandidly Kristin

All right, keep on trucking. Question number four Early bird or night owl? 

Chet Galaska

Night owl? Absolutely. I'll tell you this. On the local radio they had an ad for a while and they had this female voice come on and it was a raspy voice, like she was a heavy smoker who had just rolled out of bed. Voice like she was a heavy smoker who had just rolled out of bed. And then she says someday I hope to be a morning person. 

Kandidly Kristin

I can relate to that. I hear you, I'm not an early bird. No, question number five. 

Chet Galaska

If you could have one superpower, which one would it be? I don't know. You know it's a funny thing. You might think you'd like to have x-ray vision, or you'd like to be able to have telepathy or you understand what other people are thinking. But I think about with those. I definitely would not want those because I really don't want to know that stuff you know would cause more harm than good. So I would pick something usable, like maybe super strength.  You know that's something you can do a lot of good work with and, uh, it's simple okay, I like that. 

Kandidly Kristin

Everybody says invisibility. Like well, not everybody, but probably eight times out of ten like invisibility, or I want to be able to fly. Those are the two big ones that I get oh, that's good. 

Chet Galaska

Yeah, I would like to. I would like to fly. Matter of fact, you know, before, before I got diabetes, I got a pilot's license, so I actually have flown. I really enjoy that, but with the diabetes. You couldn't pass a medical anymore, so you couldn't fly. 

Kandidly Kristin

Oh, that sucks. 

All right. 

Question number six Sunrises or sunsets. 

Chet Galaska

Sunrises are motivational, sunsets are prettier, I think. Sunsets 

Kandidly KristinHost49:39

I like the way you put that that is absolutely correct.  Yes, all right. Question number seven what's one thing you believe everyone should experience in their lifetime? 

Chet Galaska

Joy, sheer joy. 

Kandidly Kristin

Yes, I like that. All right. Question number eight Phone calls or text messages. I like that Question number eight Phone calls or text messages. 

Chet Galaska

I like text Me too. Yeah, you know, I just find that telephone calls. You want to get a simple message across but it takes so much time to interrupt the other person that you have to small talk and all the rest of it. 

Kandidly Kristin

It's just more efficient. Yep, oh, I'm going to use that the next time somebody says why don't you never call me? That's a great answer for them. Thank you, Chet. All right. Question number nine If you had the world's undivided attention for five minutes, what would you say? 

Chet Galaska

I would say learn about diabetes and support anybody you know who has it and if you have it yourself, learn how to take care of it and do it. 

Kandidly Kristin

I was hoping you would say that. So that's a great answer. And last question, which is the same for all my guests how can my listeners connect with you to get your book or sign up for the Challenge Diabetes program? 

Chet Galaska

Oh great, so we do the shameless promotion here. My website is challengediabetes.us. It's not com, it's us, because this is about all of us. 

If you go there, you'll get some background on me, but what I'm really trying to do and this is the shameless promotion part of it is to get these videos out there, because I know that these make a difference in people's lives and if we can do that I'll be extremely gratified and I think everybody else will be happy to have the information and have a better handle on what's going on. Challengediabetes.us. 

Kandidly Kristin

All right. Well, Chet, thank you, number one, for writing this book, for developing this program, for doing the videos, for being an advocate for diabetes awareness and supporting people that have it and the people that love people that have it. 

Chet Galaska

Thank you for having me. I've had a great time and I appreciate it. 

Kandidly Kristin

No problem. So listen, guys. Chet's contact info, a link to his website, links to his books all of that will be in the show notes, in case you weren't writing it down. And I want to ask you to, please don't forget to visit my website at wwwthekandidshopcom that's Candid with a K and listen to a few episodes. Leave me a review. Follow me on all social @thekandidshoppodcast Again, Candid with a K.  Share the show with your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, strangers, whoever. And until next time, I want all of you to keep it safe, keep it healthy and keep it kandid, Thank you.