Diabetic Recipes
This is a bit of a rant. I get on this horse periodically, ride it around, waving my flags and guns, foaming at the mouth a bit, going slightly nutty. You'll get used to it. Or ignore it.
What is the deal with lumping both types of diabetes together? Seriously. If I have to read one more freakin' article about how high fructose corn syrup causes diabetes or get one more stupid email from some clueless acquaintance, telling me that if I just put my kid on the Atkins diet, she'll be cured, I'm going to go to the top of the water tower and start picking people off. OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but holy cow, does it make my blood boil.
There are TWO types of diabetes. Count 'em - One, Two. One is caused by the pancreas's failure to produce insulin, the other is due to the failure of the body to properly use the insulin the pancreas makes. It's a matter of a simple Google search to discover this. And yet the media continues to trumpet "Soda Causes Diabetes." "Obesity Leads To Diabetes Epidemic." And then I get the jerks telling me that it's all my fault that my daughter has diabetes. I shouldn't have fed her soda. Or cookies. Or candy. Right. Because that's all I ever fed my toddler. Moron.
I get the difference. I am not one of those people who say "Oh, if you have diabetes, it's because you're fat." I know that being overweight can contribute to having type 2, but you have to have some sort of genetic predisposition, otherwise every person who was overweight would develop it. I know plenty of slim people who have type 2. It can't all be blamed on a poor diet and lack of exercise.
Most of America (and probably the rest of the world) doesn't realize this. I honestly preferred when it was called Juvenile Diabetes. It distinguished it from Adult Onset Diabetes. I'm not sure who decided the names needed changing, or even why, but taking away those two distinctions has led to some serious amounts of misunderstanding.
A year or so ago, there was a report on my local NPR station about how diabetes was rampant in the Latin community. The report focused on how a CDE was helping people with their shopping, explaining how empty calories caused diabetes. How even children were getting diagnosed with diabetes now.
I kind of lost it. I emailed the station and expressed my dismay at their failure to differentiate between the two. I was polite, but to the point. The email I got in return was flippant and rude, basically telling me that most people have type 2 and they didn't see the need to differentiate between the two types. Of course, I shot off another email, explaining how their misinformation meant that I, and thousands of parents of kids with type 1, already have to explain the differences, that reports like this just reinforced incorrect beliefs about the disease. That email went unanswered.
So, why? Why did they do away with juvenile and adult onset? It made so much more sense? Better yet, why don't they give one of them a completely different name? I'm tired of trying to educate the masses, especially since most people are of the opinion that "I saw it on TV, so it must be true."
Getting off my horse now.
Julia,
I get as frustrated as you do, but I have never had the guts to send off a letter to any media outlet like that, so I applaud you. If we all took that kind of initiative, just maybe they would get it right.
I swear, I'm going to start putting T.P.F. (Total Pancreatic Failure)on all school forms from now on, to give people a clue.
We can blame the media for lousy reporting, and the American Diabetes Association, for renaming the different "types" of diabetes with the current format.
In 2003, the ADA recommended that the name "insulin-dependent diabetes" be abandoned in favor of the name "type 1". Their rationale for this was as follows:
"It is now considered to be particularly important to move away from a system that appears to base the classification of the disease, in large part, on the type of pharmacological treatment used in its management toward a system based on disease etiology where possible."
Now, we should be asking whether the name "type 1" classify the disease based on etiology? I would argue no way. The ADA could have clarified the issue by formally renaming insulin-dependent diabetes as "immune-mediated diabetes" and type 2 diabetes as "insulin-resistance mediated diabetes," but has instead created even more confusion by giving them confusing type numbers instead of distinct names truly based on etiology. Note that other similar conditions do not have this problem. For example, although Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease are both inflamatory bowel diseases, yet few people ever confuse them as they routinely do with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Why? Because their names are very clear and distinct from one another, but the ADA has created this confusion by the current naming conventions for two, etiologically unrelated conditions who share only one common symptom, namely elevated blood glucose levels.
You did the right thing by writing to your local station, as we all need to do the same thing however tiring it becomes. But until the ADA gets its stuff together, we can expect more of this public confusion rather than less of it.
AMEN!! i've been saying this for years too! type 2 needs to be called something else or maybe just that... type 2. most people don't know people with type 1 because type 2 is more obvious and prevalent. but i don't know about calling it 'adult onset' because i've heard of some really late bloomers with type 1. i got a link about a new documentary coming out about how diabetes can possibly be completely reversed by living in the desert and eating raw food for 30 days. i was outraged and sent an email to the only address on the website... still haven't gotten a reply...
it's absolutely rediculous.
what can we do? who do we need to talk to?
finally got a reply... this was what i was told... imagine! ugh whatever!!
"Hi Julie, thanks for writing. Perhaps I can give you some further information.
The participants in the film were supervised by two medical doctors, Dr. Gabriel Cousens and Dr. Helen Ross, throughout the 30-day period. There was never a point where the participants lacked access to medical care. You can learn more about their backgrounds and their work with diabetes patients at www.treeoflife.nu.
Four of the participants (Bill, Henry, Michelle and Pam) had Type 2 diabetes and one (Austin) had Type 1. Kirt believed he had Type 2, but when he returned home after the 30-day period, his doctor said he had been misdiagnosed and is in fact Type 1. You can read a bit more about the participants here: http://www.rawfor30days.com/aboutparticipants.html
I know it's difficult to conceive of this since it challenges current medical thinking on diabetes, but Dr. Cousens has successfully treated T1 as well as T2 through his program. So far there have been several cases of T1 being reversed. Of course every body is different and so is everyone's belief system. If you've watched the film preview online, you probably saw how important each participant's attitude and spirit was to their healing process.
I will indeed pass your message along to the film producers. Thanks again for your email, and if you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Kezia
Evolotus PR
PR for a better world
kezia@evolotuspr.com
www.rawfor30.com"
I fired off an email the other day to someone trying to get me to call an 800 number to listen to a live person tell me how I could cure my son's diabetes with exercise and diet.
I got a response back that said they had called the person who will be doing the phone conference and she said that if people with Type 1 follow a certain diet then they "can stop using a pump".
Agh! That made me even madder. Like you, my second email didn't get a response either.
juliemburke - I would think that company would be a prime candidate for being sued. That sounds downright dangerous. Type 1 can't be reversed.
I don't know who to contact regarding claims like that.
Actually, those types of complaints should be submitted to the Federal Trade Commission. They have an online submission form at:
http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/cmplanding.shtm
I feel your pain. I told my husband the other day that if I had a dollar for every single person who found a "cure" for my daughter needing insulin, I'd be a very wealthy woman. The latest was a very well-meaning mom of a boy who plays baseball with my son. She told me "I found a way for you to get your daughter off of insulin"(she was very excited)....honestly I was about to go into the whole thing and try to educate her but instead I just waited for it..."There is this asian man that sells melons and I have seen it on TV, once diabetics eat this melon, they stop taking insulin ALL together!"....I think my eyes must have been glazed over since I've been answering these types of questions since my daughters dx 19mths ago...I finally explained how my daughter has Type 1 diabetes and her body does not produce insulin so no melon in the world was going to make it start to produce it and without it she would not survive...she then said to me "well, just go see the man, buy the melon and give it to her, you have nothing to lose and it might work, ya never know".
I swear I am positive that some people think I enjoy giving my daughter insulin and if given any other choice, I'd choose to have her wear an insulin pump 24/7. I completely agree that they should have different names for T1 and T2.