Arnie Miles: Listen to your genetics, pay attention to your physical condition: GUWellness: Mind, Body, Soul

What you do at Georgetown?
My title is Senior Systems Architect for Advanced Research Computing. I help design and build high performance and grid computing solutions for the Medical Center, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and main campus researchers whose computational needs are greater then what can be performed on a single workstation. In order to accomplish this, I am also involved with the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Bioinformatics Grid, the Open Science Grid, and new research in grid security and resource sharing. I support the Computational Core Facility.

How long have you been at Georgetown?
5 years

When were you diagnosed with diabetes?
September 2007

How did you find out? Was it during a routine physical? Were you experience health issues?
My only symptom was frequent urination. I couldn't sleep through the night. Diabetes never occurred to me, I was terrified it was a prostrate problem. I was diagnosed immediately in the office through a urine test and blood test. There was glucose in my urine, and my blood glucose was 440. Normal is around 100.

What was your reaction when you found out?
I wasn't overly surprised. The tendency towards diabetes runs in my family. My father was one of four brothers, all three of his brothers got it, one died from complications related to it. My father has managed to avoid diabetes by taking care of himself. I didn't take care of myself like I should have, so when I was diagnosed, it did not come as a shock.

How did your life change?
Diabetes control is about diet control and exercise. If you watch what you eat and do some daily exercise, you can reverse or halt it in many cases.

I instantly stopped all sugar intake that I could identify and avoid. This started with a cold-turkey end to all soft drinks and sugary snacks and deserts. I have not had a soft drink of any sort since I was diagnosed. I was sent to 7 hours of diabetes diet training, where I learned a lot more about diet, including the impact that carbohydrates have on blood sugar levels, and what diabetes is and how it causes damage. Now I'm able to make intelligent decisions about the occasional sweet, but I'll still never drink another soft drink as long as I live.

I've also become more active. I go to the gym more often. I bought a pedometer, and I'm trying to hit 10,000 steps per day. So, I walk more places, take the stairs more often.

I take Metformin twice per day to control my blood glucose level. I take my blood glucose level twice per day on a rotating schedule. So far, I do not need insulin.

What have been the greatest challenges?
The radical diet change was probably the greatest challenge. It's a good thing, I don't regret it, but I occasionally miss that extra helping of food or a second desert in a day.

What have been the greatest benefits?
So far I've lost 37 pounds. My dog loves the long walks. My glucose level is typically in the 100 to 120 range.

Anything else you’d like to share?
Basically, what I was taught is that if diabetes is in your family, you are a ticking time bomb, just waiting for it to hit. I think my father is an example that proves you can put the fuse out on that bomb; he's in his 70's and walks daily and eats well, and is now the only male in our family not to get diabetes. I'm sick because I have a genetic tendency towards it, and because I ignored that tendency. With a little luck, diet and exercise may reverse my illness, but I may be on medication the rest of my life. It might even spiral out of control, despite everything.