Every time I read an article, in a Newspaper or a program comes on the TV, type two diabetics are typecast in the roll of morbidly obese. The implication is they all gorged on junk until they almost burst, am I right, or am I right ! We are not alone, being profoundly deaf can have people treating you like you are an idiot, the same goes for people with other disabilities. Stupidity, fear and ignorance is often the order of the day eh. Well, check this item out.
"Flinders public health researcher and medical anthropologist Dr Darlene McNaughton (pictured) has completed a project that investigated how diabetes is being presented in research and in the media, covering the past 15 years. She says that weight is increasingly being posited as the primary or sole cause of diabetes, and that this is a dangerous oversimplification.
“There is still a lot of uncertainty about the etiology of diabetes and there are a number of potential risk factors at play include ageing, gestational diabetes, genetics, under nutrition, poverty and family history, many of which are beyond individual control,” Dr McNaughton said.
“Despite this, overweight and obesity are increasingly depicted not only as risk factors, but also as the central cause of the disease,” she said.
Dr McNaughton said that research has demonstrated that obese people do have slightly higher rates of diabetes than people of ordinary weight.
“But at the same time, there are an awful lot of obese or overweight people who don’t have diabetes and who never will, because it’s more complicated than ‘weight equals diabetes’,” she said.
“The last thing we want is a situation where people feel ashamed for a condition that has very complex causes that we still really don’t understand, and are not seeking social or medical support.”
Full article here.
Think on this one. Do over weight people run the risk of type two diabetes, or do some type two diabetics become over weight ? What comes first ?
Eddie
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7 comments:
Being overweight is a risk factor to consider, but isn't necessarily the cause. For example tall women are at greater risk of cancer - true statement. Not all tall women get cancer - also true.
A school teacher friend of mine was diagnosed with Type II diabetes at age 55. The diagnosis shocked him. He had never been overweight in his entire life. He also was a life long teetotaler. He did have a sweet tooth though and liked his soda pop. Tough break - regardless.
Hi Marc thanks for your comment. Graham will be a long later (he is nocturnal, he thinks he’s a bat) He has never been over weight in his life. Indeed, he eats around a thousand calories a day more than me just to maintain his beanpole physique.
Eddie
The LC dietitian Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE who was always at healthy weight and eating healthy, developed an abnormally high A1C due to her low tolerance of carbohydrates.
I understand how important it is for diabetics to follow a LC diet, but as a not diabetic , I am also concerned about people who are considered to be healthy, but due to undiagnosed poor carb tolerance, damage their health eating the food which is wrong for them. I wish that blood sugar would be measured as routinely as a blood pressure today .
Hi Galina
Thank you for commenting on our blog, always appreciated. Almost five years ago I asked my diabetes nurse and advisor. Why don’t you test all over weight adults or people with a family history of type two diabetes ?. She replied because it would cost too much. I replied a BG test strip costs the NHS pennies. She stated “it is not the cost of a test, but we know we would find so many diabetics the system could not cope and it would collapse” Grim or what.
Regards Eddie
Hi Marc,
What Eddie says is true except for the reference to me being a bat!
I was diagnosed following a routine blood test I don't know who was more shocked me or the nurse who gave me bad news. I have never been overweight and always been active and had good cholesterol levels and blood pressure nor is there any history of diabetes in the family.
Prior to diagnosis I had gone through a very traumatic year and ended up on anti-depressants, I have seen studies that suggest a tentative link between AD's and diabetes whether or not that was the cause of my diabetes diagnosis I suppose I'll never know.
Graham
You are welcome, Eddie. I support your cite because my blood is boiling when diabetics are getting an advice "Eat what you want, just cover it with insulin and remember that starvation is always an option".
I am not on a mission, but I hope that slowly we all will be able to rise an awareness about the importance of measuring individual's blood sugar levels. I don't believe governments would be doing that, I believe in the wisdom of a crowd. Right now a regular person most likely will take a suggestions to measure own BS as an offence - "I am not some unfortunate diabetic (who too obviously managed to dig his own miserable hole according to a public opinion)". People don't want to tarnish themselves acting like despised diabetics and prefer to keep their heads in a sand. Recently I met a woman younger 6 years than myself, who was put on an antyanxiety meds, gained 20% of her weight in a year, still very miserable, of course. She was diagnosed with a hypoglycemia earlier, but was treated for a mental disorder instead. If I had a mission, it would be to explain to a whole world that D1 and D2 are just two of many conditions of a poor carb handling by the body.
I think many T2s will rejoice that something they have known for a long time is now being openly recognised.
We alll know about fat round the organs and the effects of unused insulin in the body.
Diabetics are supposed to have a sweeter tooth too in the same way hat alcoholics have to drink more before it has an effect.I
i always trust Drs and scientists more when they admit they don't have all the answers. of course hey don' -how could they?
Kath/blinkered
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