Badly researched article

[clarentina]

Sometimes I Google search, 'diabetes' and 'news' just to see what's out there at the moment. Yesterday I found this article:

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/lifesty ... _1_3428520

which includes this howler:
"Type 2 diabetes can be treated with tablets and diet control.

But if the disease worsens and progresses to Type 1, sufferers will face a lifetime of having to inject themselves with insulin to control their blood sugar levels."

This is offensive for people with both type 1 and 2 diabetes! I have emailed the website/paper but no response yet. When people report the news they usually have a duty of care to make sure they are passing on correct information. However it's clear here that the writer has made no attempt to do such a thing and is promoting potentially harmful misinformation. Shameful.


Clare

 

[Patch]

It's quite common. When I was diagnosd, my own DOCTOR told me the very same (10+years ago). He said that it was inevitable that it would progress to T1 and daily insulin injections...

 

[RussG]

I agree that this is not very well expressed at all. My guess is that this dates from people who were used to the classifications of 'insulin dependent diabetes mellitus' and 'non-insulin depdendent diabetes mellitus' and haven't worked out that current thinking sees the two as having different etiologies. In the older way of thinking you could progress from NIDDM to IDDM and lots of people did.

 

[ally5555]

Hi

Journalists make things up or misrepresent what an expert has told them - I have taken calls from them and am very careful what I say!
Or they might use Wikipaedia which is often wrong!

Ally

 

[grh1904]

When I read the article I didn't see it as misleading as that is what happened to me, but the wording (comming from a journalist who should at least have some qualifications in basic English langauge) could have been better.

Let'slook at some of it..........
Type 2 diabetes can be treated (1) with tablets and diet control.

But if the disease worsens (2) and progresses to Type 1, sufferers will face a lifetime of having to inject themselves with insulin to control their blood sugar levels."

1. Gives the impression that if you are diagnosed with DB a simple course of tablets from the doc & you're better, just like when you get a chest infection........ What would've sounded better is that T2 is "CONTROLLED" by tablets and/or diet.

2. Gives the impression that it is a "disease" you can catch, a bit like "you silly person you had unprotected contact with someone with DB, & cos you weren't using any protection you've caught it".

I was diagnosed as T2 in Oct 2004 and started on tablets. Over a period of time the tablets increased in frequency & number before my care team suggested insulin & I started on this June 2007. When initially diagnosed I was 35yrs old & about 12 & a half stone. When I went onto insulin I was just under 10 stone, but 3 months after starting on insulin I was back up to 12stone. Currently 13 stone 4lbs (but I have been sat on my jacksy for the last 2 months with a double displaced fracture of my left ankle where my daily exercise is either reaching for more biscuits to dunk in my cuppa or hobbling to the fridge for another bottle of Theakston's Old Peculiar beer!!!! :shock: ).

I changed GP surgery in 2009 and my new GP decided to "re-brand" me from T2 to a Type 1.

As I started my post, I don't find the article as misleading as I am one of those who started out T2 "controlling" my DB with tablets, but over time as things did get "worse" I moved onto insulin to "control" my DB, I just think that the wording of it is very very poor indeed.

 

[Ka-Mon]

It's quite common. When I was diagnosd, my own DOCTOR told me the very same (10+years ago). He said that it was inevitable that it would progress to T1 and daily insulin injections...

My Doctor told me the opposite, he said that a T2 could become insulin dependent but could never progress to a T1. Maybe some Doctors were missing on the day the lecturer mentioned this fact. :lol:

 

[Ka-Mon]

Sometimes I Google search, 'diabetes' and 'news' just to see what's out there at the moment. Yesterday I found this article:

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/lifesty ... _1_3428520

which includes this howler:
"Type 2 diabetes can be treated with tablets and diet control.

But if the disease worsens and progresses to Type 1, sufferers will face a lifetime of having to inject themselves with insulin to control their blood sugar levels."

This is offensive for people with both type 1 and 2 diabetes! I have emailed the website/paper but no response yet. When people report the news they usually have a duty of care to make sure they are passing on correct information. However it's clear here that the writer has made no attempt to do such a thing and is promoting potentially harmful misinformation. Shameful.


Clare

Maybe he is repeating the words from someone he got his "expert" information from, ie: someone like Patch's Doctor?

 

[Ka-Mon]

Sometimes I Google search, 'diabetes' and 'news' just to see what's out there at the moment. Yesterday I found this article:

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/lifesty ... _1_3428520

which includes this howler:
"Type 2 diabetes can be treated with tablets and diet control.

But if the disease worsens and progresses to Type 1, sufferers will face a lifetime of having to inject themselves with insulin to control their blood sugar levels."

This is offensive for people with both type 1 and 2 diabetes! I have emailed the website/paper but no response yet. When people report the news they usually have a duty of care to make sure they are passing on correct information. However it's clear here that the writer has made no attempt to do such a thing and is promoting potentially harmful misinformation. Shameful.


Clare

Maybe he is repeating the words of a Diabetes "expert" he got his information from, ie: someone like Patch's Doctor?

 

[LittleSue]

The article is inaccurate. T2 can't "progress to T1". To my knowledge it's never been suggested that insulin resistance/deficiency can cause the body to attack beta-cells. A T2 can progress to needing insulin, but that is a different thing altogether.