You know what I hate

insertnicknamehere:

The general misconception that eating too much sugar gives you diabetes. It really annoys me when people find out that I have diabetes, a lot of times I have heard “oh, well, did you eat a lot of sugar?” or “Really, but you’re not overweight.”

I mean, it’s all right that you don’t know what actually causes diabetes, but do you really think saying that someone shouldn’t have eaten so much sugar or doesn’t look like they are overweight is gonna make someone feel good? Didn’t think so.

I wish the misconception could just go away. No, diabetes is not caused by eating to much sugar. Yes, people are more susceptible to type II diabetes if they are overweight, but even then, the disease is still linked to certain genes, so it is an inheritable factor.

In addition, Type I diabetes isn’t even associated with your diet as well. It can also be inherited, and is caused by the body’s own immune system attacking the beta cells that produce insulin in the pancreas because it believes it is foreign.

Diabetes is a disease, and spreading the misconceptions stated earlier isn’t going to help out people with diabetes. We deal with enough pricks a day already, we don’t need to deal with any more with these mindless comments.

And I know some people state those comments because they actually believe they are true, which is okay, I just wish overall there could be more education about this disease, even for people who don’t have to deal with it.

…seriously?

No, this 26 pound gummy bear will NOT give you “the gift of diabetes.” What it will give you, if you attempt to eat the whole thing at once, is a massive sugar-high, a lot of empty calories, and probably the “gift” of being nauseated and possibly the “gift” of puking it all back up.

I am now curious if jokes about things “giving the gift of cancer” exist.

Diabetes: There’s more to it than just a man with a mustache.

Yes, the title of this post is in reference to Wilford Brimley, who to some people is best known for Liberty Medical advertisements and his particular pronunciation of diabetes as “di-uh-beet-us.” The commercial has spawned numerous cat macros, as well as continued laughter over the pronunciation. I am sure Mr. Brimley’s commercials helped many Americans, but the part where lots of other Americans have turned it into a joke? Not really helping anybody.

The trope that “X is so sweet it’s gonna give me diabetes,” when X is generally some over the top cute or twee (when it’s not food related) or when it is just really, really sugary (if it’s a food)? Not really that funny either, because it perpetuates the misconception that too much sugar causes diabetes.

It’s so much more complicated than that. There can be genetic factors, environmental factors, factors that include how a human body reacts to certain viruses, and yes, weight can be a factor. But it isn’t always.

Both Type 1 (insulin dependent–meaning a person has to give herself/himself injections of insulin using syringes, syringe pens, or an insulin pump) and Tye 2 (usually–but not always–treated with something other than insulin injections) are on the rise. Both are on the rise in children, for whom it is especially not a laughing matter.

Two major organizations that advocate for increased research into better treatments for diabetes are the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org) and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (www.jdrf.org). The ADA covers both types of diabetes, while the JDRF focuses on Type 1. Both of these sites have excellent information on symptoms, treatments, and how to cope with life with diabetes no matter how old or how young someone is when they are diagnosed. They provide information on coping with health complications that can arise when blood glucose levels are not controlled (and controlling blood sugar levels is not always easy: there are so many things that can influence them, a lot of which people can’t control like stress or hormonal fluctuations), or things that people with diabetes are just at a greater risk for.

I plan to post more on diabetes during this month, as I said in an earlier post. This is a start. It can be an emotional topic for me. It’s been part of my life for almost fourteen years now, and it will be a part of my life for however many years I have to go.

November is American Diabetes Month

Sometime in the next couple of weeks, I will be posting some information on diabetes, both Type 1 and Type 2, because November is American Diabetes Month. I don’t usually do much for the month, but that thing I posted earlier that was basically treating diabetes as “lol, fat people” and the interview here, which also treats diabetes–including the possible loss of body parts due to complications that can arise from having diabetes–as “lol, fat people,” have gotten me interested in spreading actual information about diabetes, which currently affects the lives of nearly 26 million American children and adults. And for a lot of those people, it has absolutely nothing to do with being overweight.