Don't involve yourself in the blame game.

anna29

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
4,789
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Cruelty to Animals/Children
Liars/Manipulators/Bullying
Hi All .

I have relocated controllers latest post .
This kind of negativity serves no purpose at all here .

Hopefully all can move along safetly back to the thread topic and discussion .
It has been both helpful with members and an interesting discussion/debate too :thumbup:

Apologies to all for the latest disruption...

Anna .
 

Andybell

Newbie
Messages
3
Thank you for that I have beating myself up for years, I have chronic depression I have now lost 11 stone but still get from doctors your weight doesn't help. If the docs were more like you I think we will all be better off.
Thanks again
 
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rinfrance

Well-Known Member
Messages
63
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Thats smack on, however you must realise that many "specialists" are giving rote. Even on the formal bit here the other day it stated overweight etc.
If someone put down it was through being born it would be more factual.
So please any so called specialist make a note, being a type 2 diabetic is more likely to be generic / hereditary etc.
If you say it is through overweight then start looking at your patients and thier parents.
For info, My G/father very light, my dad, about 10 stone and 5'8", me OK slightly overweight, 6'3" 110Kg HDL about 1.5-2 and LDL about 1. We all got DB at about 55-60.
 

SpaceChick

Well-Known Member
Messages
89
Just want to add in "my story"....in 2009 (exactly 4 years ago, was early August) I got swine flu... The virus attacked my heart and I got myocarditis (a thankfully reversible heart condition), since then I haven't been "quite right" health wise. At the time I was marginally overweight but only by a few pounds. The 4 years since has seen me pile on the weight taking me into just obese territory and I had a recurrence of the myocarditis 18 months ago following the flu.

I exercise (cycling mainly although I also like walking and swimming) and have eaten a "good diet" or so I thought, low sugar, no chocolates, cakes etc, plenty of fresh fruit and veg.

Yet I have felt genuinely "unwell" for the past 4 years.

My Mum and her Dad, my granddad, we're both type 2 diabetics. I've always thought of myself as a ticking time bomb.

This morning I got my diagnosis, and in view of my diet have been put straight into Metformin.

I actually see this as a weight off my mind, I approach the future with confidence that the medication may help me to lose weight, and I look forward to managing my BS level and carb intake.

What I have read on this thread makes sense. My GP today told me that it was not my fault, and my diagnosis actually explains issues I have had (including the weight gain when I lead a healthy lifestyle). She actually thinks I could well have been diabetic since the swine flu, just an undiagnosed diet controlled diabetic :wink:

I am now feeling more positive about the future than I have in a long time, despite getting a chronic condition diagnosis.... Because when you know what you are fighting its easier to fight.

So did I get this because I'm fat and lazy? Hell no, fat maybe, but I could never be described as lazy! However, the fatness could very well be just another symptom along with the tiredness, desperate need to pee, thirstiness etc etc
 

hornplayer

Well-Known Member
Messages
983
It's a contentious issue, but I really think that weight gain could be considered a symptom of diabetes instead of a cause.

There was a post a while ago, which received surprisingly little attention, linking to a video of an American doctor talking about how he and some of his colleagues are starting to explore the causes of diabetes. They are looking at T2 diabetes, with all it's controversial contributory factors, and asking if it isn't hiding some deeper metabolic problem. He explains very clearly, in my opinion, how weight gain happens in undiagnosed diabetes, as the body screams out for sugar which is prevented from reaching the starving cells by a lack of insulin. An efficient body will attempt to store the sugar somewhere and as fat cells apparently are fairly simple and don't need insulin to unlock them, it gets shoved in there. - unfortunately, the rest of the body still screams for sugar so it's a circle, which continues until diagnosis. - That is certainly true in my case. As weight loss is an accepted symptom, I s'pose it is difficult for weight gain to be seen as an equally valid symptom.

Lots of other really interesting things were said in the clip. I think I've got the gist of some of what was said, - apologies if I've got it wrong. It really is worth a look. I'm sorry I can't post a link, - I hope someone else can!


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
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vez13

Member
Messages
15
This is brilliant! there is so much stigma attached to being diabetic and also how much you weigh etc... i am overweight i will admit that but i am also big boned, it runs in my family, we are of all tall (myself 5ft 11) and have the 'big boned' body structure.

I think people who don't understand are very sterotypical and assume your overweight, lazy etc
 

stuffedolive

Well-Known Member
Messages
542
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Daily Mail, you know the sort
vez13 said:
i am overweight i will admit that

Great, you have the gift to actually do something about it.

I really wish that overweight people would stop carping on about being 'blamed' for their condition - just lose the weight! Diabetes is not all about weight, but it doesn't help.

I, on the other hand, am thin and haven't got the weight to lose to 'reverse' my condition - but I'm still diabetic and get tarred with the same brush! In some respects I wish I were 'in your shoes'.
 

lucylocket61

Expert
Messages
6,435
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
You know, I wish thin type 2's would just keep unhelpful and insensitive comments to themselves.

Unless you have experienced the abuse, hurtful comment and looks from stranger, family, friends and medical people, you cannot understand how much it hurts. And how resentful one feels, knowing that being diabetic is not ones fault.

Even drug addicts, smokers and alcoholics do not seem to come in for the hurt and pain and blame that is aimed at overweight diabetics for causing their condition and being a drain on the NHS, causing babies to go without vital treatment and old people to die unnecessarily due to our self indulgent behaviour, according to some people and the media. Its like racist and sexism has morphed into fatism.

Once the time comes, as I am sure it will, when becoming overweight is recognised as a symptom of diabetes, they will all have to eat their words. But in the meantime, lets not make it harder for us all. :(
 

Rhaya

Member
Messages
9
What a great thread. Diabetes is exploding around the world like wildfire. Is that because everyone, millions of millions of people are morally defective??? All around the world???? Give me a break!! You are no more responsible for diabetes than you would be for getting celiac disease. Both are problems of genetics and the food environment, and our food environment is weird now, and it's making heaps of us sick.
I think this stigma is shifting now. It can't go quickly enough!!
 
C

catherinecherub

Guest
I recently read a comment on the forum that made me mad. I thought about replying but decided against it as it might have started WW3. and I considered the comment outstandingly naive.

I think this article explains it very well.
To criticise or not to criticise.

Words can lift you up as well as tear you down, take heed.

http://www.dlife.com/diabetes/type-2/grubbs_090308
 

Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,551
catherinecherub said:
I recently read a comment on the forum that made me mad. I thought about replying but decided against it as it might have started WW3. and I considered the comment outstandingly naive.

I think this article explains it very well.
To criticise or not to criticise.

Words can lift you up as well as tear you down, take heed.

http://www.dlife.com/diabetes/type-2/grubbs_090308

Sometimes I find that the well-meant positive comment can be even more devastating if it is inaccurate or assumptions have been made.
I suppose we can only do our best . I tend to find that negative comments are rarely the esul of malice but more often of ignorance or glibness or failure to consider the impact on the recipient.
A well meant positive comment is almost certainly sincere and thus is often taken to heart more. But maybe thats just me.
 

hornplayer

Well-Known Member
Messages
983
catherinecherub said:
I recently read a comment on the forum that made me mad. I thought about replying but decided against it as it might have started WW3. and I considered the comment outstandingly naive.

I think this article explains it very well.
To criticise or not to criticise.

Words can lift you up as well as tear you down, take heed.

http://www.dlife.com/diabetes/type-2/grubbs_090308

WW3 might have been interesting. ;)

But you are so completely right about the article. It's bang on. Thanks for posting the link.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 

charon

Well-Known Member
Messages
201
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Well I do blame me.
Overworking and trying to combat tiredness by eating vast amounts of sugar and chocolate. A bit of research would have shown me this was inevitable.

So I'm to blame but don't feel guilty. Nothing I can do about that now, it's in the past and gone. Just have to make the best of it and forcing me to take a bit more care of myself I consider a good thing.
Feeling better than I have for decades.


Fitter and feeling better than I have for decades.


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stuffedolive

Well-Known Member
Messages
542
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Daily Mail, you know the sort
Over the last year 5 people in my (fairly small) sports club have been diagnosed as T2. All are reasonably fit over 50's.
Are they to blame? They have looked after themselves and none are obese, some decidedly slim in fact. Who knows what has caused this diagnosis. Perhaps diagnoses have just gotten tighter? Perhaps they had a high carb/sugar diet fuelling all that exercise but that never caused them to pile on the pounds? Perhaps it is their fault, but were they to know any different?
 

primmers

Well-Known Member
Messages
175
I just saw this TED lecture on You Tube. If the link doesn't work search Peter Attia: What if we're wrong about diabetes? He's a medic researching around the question of whether obesity is a symptom of the cause of diabetes rather than the cause itself.

I know that in the run up to my diagnosis I had an enormous amount of trouble losing weight from a BMI of about 27. I was cycling to and from work, 15 mins each way including hills, 5 days a week and watching what I ate - all the sort of stuff recommended - low fat, high complex carb etc etc. Over 4 months I lost a grand total of 4lb. After diagnosis and starting to reduce my carb intake (but not necessarily my cals, I ate cheese and nuts etc) I lost 10 lb in 4 weeks on much less exercise than pre diagnosis.

Anyway, here's the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMhLBPPtlrY