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Living With Your Own Ideas¶
What did you make? Why did it matter?
Functional health considers diet and exercise as the keys to disease prevention and a life full of energy and possibilities. Yet, strict diet regimens and timed exercise are hard to follow and often require much greater than following a prescription. Even as a healthy person, I wanted to understand what it would feel like to be forced to highly structured healthy lifestyle. Moreover, I wanted to know what would happen if I attempt to understand my health by measuring it. So, I decided to understand what the day in the life looks like for a type 2 diabetic.
Diabetes affects the body by affecting the production and the resistance of insulin, which plays a vital role in health and wellbeing. Mainly, this hormone allows glucose (sugar in the blood ) to enter our fat, muscles and liver allowing us to produce and store energy. When our insulin becomes affected we need to help the body regulate the levels of sugar in the blood and we can do this through a balanced diet and exercise. When this combination is not enough, sometimes it can be necessary to aid our body with additional insulin so that we can continue to live functional and happy lives. High blood pressure can often come hand in hand with diabetes, and is something to monitor regardless of health status.
Rules of engagement:
- Diet
- Greens
- Low-carb
- Balanced
- No sugar
- No carbs
- No coffee
- Exercise
- 1 hour per day
- Regenerative habits
- Mindful breathing or meditating
- No smoking or drinking
- Measuring
- Myrto CGM Alerts (Prototyped version of a Dexcom glucose monitor + whatsapp alerts from a friend). Act upon alert to regulate blood sugar levels by eating or exercising.
- Instant glucose measurement
- Blood pressure measurement
- Perceiving and decoding stimuli
- Feelings or sensations
- Emotions
- Triggers
- Habits
- Thoughts
It was an incredible experience, which I came to appreciate and enjoy with gratitude and awareness. I honestly believe that more awareness on health and chronic diseas is needed, and that more people should be aware of the different needs of diabetic patients. Living with a strict diet can be demanding and difficult, especially when living inside such a toxic system that’s nurtured by sugar, highly processed foods, harmful fats and chemicals; a system that is not natural. During this experience, most of the shops or restaurants that I normally interacted with were not accessible and I had to seek alternatives (often spending or walking more). The same happened at a social level when I decided not to join some friends for a drink, or for anything at all. I find it critical to redesign our systems to become more natural and healthy for humans and the planet. To enjoy leisure, food and drink, work, or day to day living in a regenerative style that improves our wellbeing. Society ought to be more careful to not disregard the danger of normalizing a toxic system that harms our bodies and minds.
I am not a fanatic of embedding technology into our bodies; I’d much rather have nothing attached at all! Still, if this would allow me to live and feel better, I’m all in. I find the concept of CGMs and Insulin Pumps fascinating, as they automate tasks and make life easier. Although I could not gain value from my prototyped CGM, having something attached to my body for more than 24 hours was really an experience. It is uncomfortable. It itches and sometimes really hurts. Taking it off was really painful as well, and some of the sealing glue remained unremovable. Although this was just a prototype, I can imagine what it means to live with technology embedded and insist that there is tremendous opportunity to improve wellbeing and help patients to live more comfortable with technology.
This last remark also plays with the concept of a spectrum between peace and anxiety when measuring to understand. Sometimes, measuring can become an act of relief but other times it can become an act of control. During the exercise, I came to experience the fear of truly accepting an unwanted measurement. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions and can surely affect anxiety levels.
All in all, I found a direct relationship between physical health, mental health and the context we live in. The things we eat, the places we go, the habits we live with and how we react to our environment shapes our wellbeing. Our current systems are unsustainable in all dimensions and represent a ticking bomb towards more global chaos. It is critical to design safer and regenerative spaces, activities, relationships and environments for us to thrive in and coexist.
What happens when you involve yourself?
Things get personal! You face your fears and curiosities to greet them with open arms. There were so many feelings engrained to this process; pricking my finger, needles, sticky/uncomfortable tape, anxiety, isolation, disconnection, fear, peace, joy, comfort, gratitude. A lot of these feelings also had radical twists in short timespans, like before and after measuring my glucose or blood pressure. Not knowing if I may be indicating a health problem gives me fear and anxiety, but once I understand that I am healthy then I can enjoy life even more peaceful. New things that I never imagined also appeared in my head, a new universe that I had not yet discovered.
What happens when you use yourself as an instrument?
Intensity, detail and perception increase. Having interviewed a number of diabetic patients in the past, terms like lancets, test stripes, CGM, pump… were a standard for every conversation. But there is actually a huge difference in listening “I must prick my finger every night to measure my glucose levels, even if I use the CGM all day,” and actually doing it yourself. The learning is much more profound and stimulating.
Did anything change about your way of working? What does it mean for your future work?
Yes. I’ve opened a door to get more personal, intimate and proactive to get myself into a great depth of detail that one can only obtain by immersing fully into the first person perspective. The journey was valuable and generated truly interesting insights. I believe that my work from now on forwards will have this pathway engrained, and that there will somehow be an invitation to explore the first person perspective.
After seeing the videos of your design space collective, how does it change your understanding of it, present new opportunities or inspire new possibilities for collaboration?
New concepts have emerged: • Pseudo-cyborg • Toxic Systems • Alienation / Unity • Mental <> Physical connection in health
Through this, I have also opened new research gates into the Central Nervous System, the Polyvagal Nerve Theory, Neurological Wiring and all of the different mental aspects that affect our health and ultimately all other aspects our lives.