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Prevention

A Long Way From Beating Diabetes

April 8, 2016 by Frank Leave a Comment

I felt like the words “prevention,” complications” and “type 2” were thrown at me for much of yesterday’s diabetes themed World Health Day. The purpose of World Health Day was to raise awareness around diabetes, and promote good management. Yet I felt that much of what I saw on social media did little to achieve this.

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I was disappointed to see so much coverage focussed on diabetes complications, its cost and its impact on society. What World Health Day lacked for me, was that element of how we people with diabetes manage with this condition day to day. I didn’t see a lot that reflected the wonderful campaign posters that I praised yesterday. Those elements, in my eyes, are how we raise awareness. Those elements are how we make people better understand the day to day management of this condition, and motivate them to live healthier lifestyles.

One story which did achieve this, albeit with more of a type 1 focus, was a DOC connection Lydia Parkhurst from the UK. Check out her fantastic article here.

It was also encouraging to read this quote from Diabetes Australia CEO Greg Johnson, yet disappointing that the issue didn’t receive more attention at the same time.

“The epidemic continues to grow at alarming rates affecting all nations of the world [but] disadvantaged people and poorer people in our communities are much more affected by diabetes.”

The theme of World Health Day was “beat diabetes,” yet the sad reality is that people in developing countries are unable to do so. People in disadvantaged areas of the world are unable to access life saving insulin, blood glucose test strips and basic healthcare. In a country where I take all of these items for granted, we really need to be focussing our efforts on more equal access for others. I strongly urge you to check out T1International for some eye opening insights and join the Insulin 4 All campaign.

To quote some of my words from last November, I’m a bit sick of the media associating diabetes with all of those “lifestyle” factors. Yes, obesity is an issue. Yes, inactivity is an issue. Yes, they’re epidemics, along with diabetes. Yes, in some cases they can be prevented. And yes, we need to work to halt them.

And we can. Independently of each other.

Why can’t we promote healthy diets and active lifestyles, without bringing the words “causes diabetes” into the mix? Wouldn’t it lead to the same outcome? We’d be working towards haulting those epidemics, without stigmatising the people who are already living with chronic conditions.

People living with diabetes would feel motivated and empowered to manage their condition through a healthy lifestyle. And at the same time we’d be encouraging people at risk of developing these conditions to adopt healthier lifestyles.

The only difference?

People already living with diabetes wouldn’t be stigmatised. They wouldn’t have to hear demoralising messages that blame and shame them.

Truth be told, nobody chooses ANY type of diabetes. Except for the health care providers, researchers, advocates and donors who are trying to make sense of, and solve it. Each and every single day.

We have a long way to go in order to truly “beat” diabetes.

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Posted in: Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes Musings Tagged: Complications, Diabetes, Prevention, WorldHealthDay

Diabetes Horror Stories in the Media

September 30, 2015 by Frank Leave a Comment

Last night’s episode of 7.30 was rather confronting with some of the harsh realities of diabetes in Australia. We were introduced to one of Australia’s many diabetes “hotspots,” Blacktown in New South Wales. We were told that 40% of patient blood tests in the Blacktown Hospital emergency room showed diabetes. One third of those patients were unaware that they had diabetes, and another third were pre-diabetic.

We were introduced to a woman who ate her way to type 2 diabetes with junk food. We were told by the CEO of Diabetes Australia that one quarter to one third of hospital beds in Australia were filled with people suffering from diabetes complications. And we were introduced to an elderly woman who thought she had reasonable control of her blood sugar levels, only to be told by doctors that she needed to have her foot amputated.

Honestly, I just feel torn when I see these diabetes horror stories in the media.

Yesterday I wrote about how strongly I feel about not seeing the people around me develop diabetes. And how I am all for doing my bit to help prevent new cases of diabetes.

And then I see stories in the media like the one I saw last night. Stories that leave me stunned. Stories that leave me fearful. Stories that make me want to find a corner and curl up into a ball.

It doesn’t matter how average, how decent or how good of a job I feel like I’m doing. I see stories like these and all of that work is reduced to shreds. I’m beating myself up again. I’m thinking about all of the bad decisions I’ve made. I’m thinking about all of the potential damage I’ve done to my body. I wonder if I will be one of those diabetes horror stories, one day. And I wonder if there’s any point in trying.

But these stories are true. They do happen. Is it fair for me to attack them, or to pretend that they don’t happen in real life? I don’t know.

I guess all I’m trying to say is that there are people watching these stories who are already living with diabetes. Some of the people seeing these stories are trying their very hardest to manage, and stay on top of this rollercoaster of a disease. And horror stories like these don’t give them much of an outlook, or motivation to keep going.

Prevention is important. But support and encouragement for those already living with this disease is equally important, too.

The transcript from last night’s report on the 7.30 program is here. You might be able to watch the report too, depending on geography restrictions.

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Posted in: Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes Musings Tagged: Diabetes, Epidemic, Media, Prevention

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