There is a programme on BBC1 on Monday 3rd. October about Type2.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07yklv8
Diabetes: The Hidden Killer
Panorama
Britain is in the grip of a health epidemic that's threatening to overwhelm the NHS. More and more of us are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. It's a hidden killer which can lead to heart failure,blindness, kidney disease and leg amputations. Now even children are being diagnosed with the condition. Filming over six months, Panorama reports from the frontline of the epidemic - in Birmingham, where almost one in ten people has the disease.
The BBC should be ashamed of itself for its diabolical hatchet job !
The Panorama programme was a waste of time and bbc money ...what was its purpose? The headline diabetes costs the NHS money has already been well documented. All it did was to vilify anyone with diabetes...no distinction between type 1 or type 2 but even then just an implication that those of us with tD2 are just lazy people who stuff their faces! Makes me feel embarrassed and ashamed to admit I have TD2 so how will that help me take care of myself and save the NHS money? Basically by using the cricketer as an example of someone who had looked after himself by keeping his sugars under control but still succumbing to kidney dialysis showed us diabetics there is no hope and the disease will get you in the end! Not helpful.
Where was any of the positives... showing us how diet can help..especially the low carb blood sugar diet I have been following..my results? HBA1c in May 2016 was 128!! HBA1c in September 2016 33!!!! Reversed in less than 4 months..
(Meds for just 3 weeks but had reactions to metformin and gliclazide so done practically meds free) I know i have to maintain this for the rest of my life but hey... I did NOT have my stomach stapled in order to achieve it... I ate less ,especially sugar and carbohydrates, and moved more..alot more.. Where was this information in the programme? Or even any mention of reversing/holding back the progression of the disease via non surgical means discussed? There is some hope out there and we should spread it.
How are we ever going to reach those 1 million people who do not know they have the disease or are at risk if we don't promote the symptoms and encourage everyone to look at their ABBC (apple shape,blood sugars,blood pressure and cholesterol)... everyone should do this.. not just diabetics> This is how the NHS will save money... prevention. Smokers get help to quit nicotine, why can't they offer better help to those of us addicted to sugar? telling us to go away and loose weight
is half hearted help.
The programme could have also pointed out that friends and families expecting us diabetics to just go without all the lovely food they are still eating in front of us (because they think they will never get Diabetes will they? )and that we need to consider "poison" just make it even harder to stick to the diet and keep our resolve. We have to be stronger than anyone else around us. But we have to have the confidence in ourselves to do so. Making us ashamed and embarrassed will make many of us dive for the comfort food not ignore it.
I wish the NHS and the media would wake up and be proactive in catching people early. I am interested in seeing the new "packet" being distributed to doctors surgeries this month to see if they have stopped promoting high carb low fat diets and how they are going to catch the pre diabetics and the people walking around not knowing they have the disease if they don't put up posters showing symptoms or offer "suspect"people coming through their surgeries for other reasons, a glucose test?
The computer systems could have a red flag system that asks doctors to check if their current patient is overweight?apple shaped? big blood pressure? do they ned to be offered a glucose test? I was never offered one and was diagnosed only because i was suddenly thirsty all the time which was not like me and I knew it was a symptom of TD2. But not everyone knows the symptoms... I displayed others like unexplained weight loss too but did not connect that to diabetes at all.
I want all the diabetics out there to be strong and be their own advocate because no one else can do it for you as well as you can do it for yourself> We cannot let the media get us down. We can just do our best and ask for help where we can but in the end we have to be in control ourselves. Why? Because we are worth it!