Ill informed articles about diabetes

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    • #9804
      Tim
      Keymaster

      We all love seeing badly-written articles about diabetes in the press. The ones that confuse type one and type two. The ones that say type one is caused by eating too many sweets. What fun!

      This is therefore the thread for posting your favourite howlers.

    • #10212
      Tim
      Keymaster

      Stolen from @alex, who emailed it to me, the first is from Time Out and seems to imply that diabetes is caused by high glucose levels…

      http://www.timeoutdoha.com/community/features/15484-diabetes-in-doha

    • #10213
      Tim
      Keymaster

      Of course, this fantastically ill-informed piece of nonsense from a Indonesian weightlifter columnist is still a favourite:

      http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/07/15/tips-staying-healthy-when-living-with-type-i-diabetes.html

    • #10215
      Annette A
      Participant

      So our indonesian friend thinks we should all have sensitive insulin. Is this so it buys us flowers when we’re upset? Or makes us a cup of tea when we’re stressed out? I don’t get that from an (insensitive) husband, so maybe my insulin can takes his place…

      My latest is from several colleagues, who wanted to know how my pump got my insulin into my pancreas – had I got a tube fitted inside me that it fitted onto?…!

    • #10231
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I recently got asked (clearly by an outsider of the Big D family) whether I had exhausted injection sites and needed to move on to inject between my toes….
      Should try that next time I have dinner with him!

    • #10232
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Tim
      I also like this one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mehmet-oz/the-consequence-of-sweetn_b_447838.html
      According to Dr Mehmet I was born with Type 1. How amazing that it took me 32 years to notice…

    • #10235
      Tim
      Keymaster

      @alex – Dr Mehmet is an arse! What a silly article!

    • #10237
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      My favourite is often the use of T1 Diabetes as a tension raiser in Hollywood blockbusters.

      Bits of dialogue like: “My Gad Jim… If that girl doesn’t get her shot in the next 45 minutes she’ll go into insulin-shock…”

      Which would be more accurate if they were: “My Gad Jim… If that girl doesn’t get her insulin in the next 45 minutes she might get a bit grumpy during the afternoon, possibly a little thirsty too if it goes on a bit – but more than likely she’ll barely notice…”

    • #10239
      Tim
      Keymaster

      @mike – he he! I saw just that in a film the other day – I wish I could remember what it was…

    • #10241
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      @mike – Not just in the movies… this is for real: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/8001130.stm

    • #10244
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I wonder what the family actually said? Cause it can’t have been that surely? Unless they just wanted to make sure they were at the front of the queue…

    • #10250
      Tim
      Keymaster

      My bags were once lost when I was flying to Toulouse. Although my insulin and supplies were in my hand luggage I tried playing the diabetic card by telling the baggage person at KLM that it had vital insulin supplies that I needed to keep me alive. I was hoping to get to the front of the baggage-being-returned queue, but no such luck – the coiffured baggage lady simply shrugged in a Gallic way and ignored me.

    • #10262
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I was recently asked whether I was OK or needed to “shoot up”. My usual answer is “I’m OK, because I shoot up”. These people with proper pancreas should do their homework on chronic diseases…
      Especially as I know bugger all about asthma.

    • #10264
      Tim
      Keymaster

      @alex – ‘zactly! I know absolutely nothing about haemophilia, asthma, epilepsy or any other chronic illness. I’m a bloody disgrace!

    • #10274
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I was playing golf last weekend and a guy I had just met was told by my friend I was diabetic , don’t worry he said and proudly showed me a bottle of diet coke just in case of any sneaky hypo ! Suppose at least he thought he would be helping :)

    • #10275
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      When I started my current job, after the usual ‘I’m diabetic, please don’t eat my emergency supplies’ introduction, a colleague took me aside to whisper that she thought I was ‘very brave’. This was accompanied by a pitying look, and a weird stroke on the arm, of the sort you would use to pet an injured kitten. She still does it occasionally- 3 years on!!!

    • #10283
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Hilary that is quality ! no one where i work gives a monkeys and would love to find me flat out just so they could plunge the huge needle thats on my GlucaGen Hypokit into my leg !

    • #10305
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      When I went on holiday with my ex last year I discovered I needed a new sharps bin (I’m awful for leaving used needles in my bedroom but thought I’d better be more responsible when spending 2 weeks in a tent with the ex – on second thoughts perhaps I should have left them lying around….) Anyway, I went into a pharmacy and asked if I could have a new sharps bin while smiling sweetly. The woman behind the counter asked if I was taking part in the needle exchange policy so I asked “I bring you my dirty needles and you get rid of them? Can’t I just get a new sharps bin?” She went on to explain that if I brought my used gear in she would give me fresh supplies. I was still grinning away stupidly at her and agreed that would make sense until said ex (who is a policeman in sunny Easterhouse – ahem – bent over the counter and said “she’s diabetic”. The wee pharmacist went bright red and promptly handed me a black sharps bin. I was amazed by the ;

    • #10346
      Tim
      Keymaster

      @gillian – don’t you just throw your sharps in the paper recycling bin? That’s what I do.

      I sometimes go round the back of the counter in my local pharmacy (I’m friends with the pharmacist, I don’t just wander round there) and look at the needle exchange kits. The needles are MASSIVE and euphemistically labelled with “diabetes supplies” on them. Heroin must really be great if people want to use such enormous horse needles!

    • #10347
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Read this choice nonsense today reported as if advice from American Diabetic Association Dietician and Director of Clinical Affairs: People with diabetes are also advised to limit their intake of carbohydrates, which means that “their best choices are low-fat dairy products, fruits and starchy vegetables,”

      Perfect! Pass me the bananas and spuds. I’m going for the low carb option…

      http://www.tucsonhealth101.com/news/bran-intake-helps-those-with-diabetes/

    • #10348
      Tim
      Keymaster

      @mike – ohhh, controversial – the old {few carbs} + {little insulin} versus {lots of carbs} + {lots of insulin} argument. Personally I prefer the latter because I like eating food!

      I once attended a thingy where this was debated. The low carb guy’s arguments weren’t helped by the fact he looked really thin and unhealthy (and didn’t have a very well made suit, but I digress). It also reminds me of the ultra-low carb Allen diet that we had before insulin’s discovery:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Madison_Allen

    • #10349
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Pizza – YUM , spuds – YUM , pasta – YUM , ice cream – YUM , live fast , die young and leave a good.looking corpse !

    • #10350
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      The insanity for me was the advocation of low carb while completely misunderstanding what that would actually mean.

      Not a low-carber myself, though I do stop a little short of the ‘my-lunchtime-mars-bar = 4u’ approach.

      The problem with dafne is the ‘n’.

    • #10352
      Alison
      Keymaster

      I’m not a low-carber due to a complete lack of self control when it comes to pasta and the like. That said, I do know that I have much better control with fewer peaks when I eat fewer carbs. I couldn’t consider life without carbs, but on the odd occassion I make the effort to eat fewer carbs, it does make a big difference.

    • #10354
      Tim
      Keymaster

      While I don’t avoid carbs, I do try to go for low GI if possible. So wholemeal bread rather than white bread. It does help and it’s not a burden because I would go for wholemeal, etc., even if I wasn’t pancreatically-challenged.

      Nom nom nom!

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