American Diabetes Association
Today (March 24th) is American Diabetes Alert Day. This is the 21st year for this event, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), though I don't recall prior years. They did get a mention in Dear Abby, which I'm sure is the ultimate PR notice for this type of event.
The ADA even came out with a Facebook widget that I promptly installed. It asks a few questions about you and rates your risk. It told me I was at high risk for pre-diabetes, which is definitely accurate. My only complaints about the widget are that you can only invite your friends to use it and the font size is pretty darn small. I'm fairly certain that a good portion of the undiagnosed type 2 population needs reading glasses and could have used a larger typeface!
You, the Blogabetes reader, probably don't need an Alert Day, since you're on this site already. I think we all agree that with 5-6 million Americans undiagnosed, these awareness days are very important. What I found blog-worthy is the amount of mis-information still circulating about this disease.
From Livestrong.com, Lance Armstrong's health and wellness site, and with a last updated date of today:
"Diabetics are typically allowed no sugar in their diets, except to counteract a low-blood-sugar reaction." Isn't this the diabetes police belief we fight all the time?
"Insulin-dependent diabetics must inject themselves daily with insulin--typically two or three times a day." - with nary a mention of pump therapy in the whole article.
"There are two types of diabetes." There are at least 4, possibly more types. Type 1, type 2, type 1.5 (or LADA) and gestational are the ones that come to my mind. The Seattle Examiner got a little closer with three types.
I'm not picking on Lance, he's had a rough enough week. This article is merely a sample of similar things I read about type 2 all the time. I am willing to harp on one of my favorite themes - "consider the source". When you're gathering info on the 'net, particularly health information, verify your findings with established sites - like dLife for diabetes, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Billy Bob's HbA1C Site" may not be your best source. And if you find the info in one place but most mainstream health sites contradict it - it's probably best to ignore it until you can run it past your doc.
