I am not Obese

Sanober said:

Thanks Annie and Daisy1

I did wonder about carb intake, as I'm so fixated on avoiding sugar I know that I do eat carbs but then I do excercise - so I need to know how much to eat and what to avoid - and so far no medical professional has mentioned how to deal with 'Hypos' - I'm convinced I do get this during excercise now and again. I've got a follow up appointment with my nurse tomorrow. So I will have some answers.

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Hypo's ......and how to treat them can be found here :

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=18529&start=0#p168549

My sister-in-law and I weigh about the same. We're obese. I'm diabetic - as is my brother. Her blood sugar is brilliant. Her son is her shape - weight on the arms and legs - and obese. Her daughter is the same shape as my brother and I - weight carried on the torso with skinny arms and legs - and overweight, but not obese. The doctor has said that my niece is most likely to end up with diabetes because of her shape. In fact she is pregnant now and is being closely monitored for gestational diabetes. Doesn't seem fair somehow.

But that's life - no-one said it would be fair.

Ailz

I personally think the Goverment are behind the (obese) scam . Firstly who set the target of what qualifies as obese (the goverment) .Want to know the reason ? Read on ! As the nhs gets its funding slashed so it has to make cutbacks this is when the scam (thats already in progress) the socalled obese will be the first to be dropped in a money saving manner .It's happening now just no one wants to fight back .
JF.

I want to fight back.

Let's get the anarchists on board. They turned the new Tesco's over in Bristol the other day... :evil:

Reading this thread it would appear that most posters think that diabetes is just a matter of bad luck and nothing to do with diet?
Why do we insist on wrapping each other in cotton wool?
I am not big "I am fat"
Like most other people on this forum I created this condition through lifestyle and diet and no amount of squealing about unfairness will change anything.
Incidently whilst we have kids stuffing Mc Donalds and KFC's into their mouths and spending inumerable hours in front of a playstation things will only get worse.
C'mon people lets stand up and take responsibility.

Bolders a dangerous generality there !!

There are many Type 1's on this Forum who became Diabetic because of various reasons and while there probably are quite a few who's lifestyle choices caused Diabetes Type 2 there are many not fat, not stuffing themselves and they still became diabetic.

Do not stereotype and do not lump all Diabetics together !

My apologies.
I was actually referring to Type 2 diabetics NOT Type 1's who I consider to be an entirely separate group altogether because as far as I know type 1 is unavoidable and therefore should be given much more resource than people with my particular type.
I still maintain however that most type 2, (although not all), bring it on our selves. I think that a lot of this can be avoided by education and taking off the cotton gloves in which children have their feelings protected at all costs. A spade is a spade and fat is fat. Period.

........And hindsight has twenty twenty vision ! None of us when younger think about what lies ahead of us ! Even the dire warnings handed out when it could be of use are largly ignored by most younger people with the 'it won't happen to me' mentality ! I watch my oldest son sliding towards Diabetes and he has been well told about it but it makes no odds to him ....yet !

In the case of stress induced Diabetes what do you do ? Give up your job ? They are not easy to get nowadays !

In the case of steroid induced Type 2 do you become more and more ill or take the steroids and risk the diabetes....tough call !

Sorry I wasn't trying to push anyones buttons. I just wasn't explaining myself clearly. Stress induced and steroid induced diabetes are both relatively unavoidable but being obese/overweight and expecting the nhs to sort out the consequences is wrong.
Same for alcoholics and drug addicts.
If you choose to put poison in your body you should be last in line for treatment and not whine about it.

Drug addicts and alcoholics deserve no help whatsoever.
The overweight and obese need education and a lesson in personal responsibility.

I think that stating that people should take responsibility for their actions is very different from saying they shouldn't get any help. Yes some type 2 diabetics are obese (for that matter so are some type 1s who are also not doing themselves any favours in this respect!) and yes I agree with you that if you become diabetic due to lifestyle choices you should take responsibility for the fact that it may be partly your own fault, but I DON'T think that this means you shouldn't be treated for it. Same with alcohol and drug addiction, yes people may have brought it upon themselves but it is still not right to write them off and refuse to treat them.

As Sue says, some people refuse to heed warnings about what they are doing to themselves, but in my view, with better education some (though not all) might be persuaded to change their ways for the better. Many people know next to nothing about diabetes (I will fully admit that I was in this camp before diagnosis), and even those who have been identified as at risk, pre diabetic or even with full blown diabetes often do not receive the education and guidance that they should.

The truth is that whatever kind of diabetes you have, it is a horrible illness that without the right treatment and help can lead to horrible consequences. The NHS is shooting itself in the foot by neglecting to educate people in a way that could make them want to change things for the better. And that applies to all kinds of diabetes too - if you're overweight, you will be helping yourself by losing weight. If your sugars are consistently high, you will be helping yourself by making the effort to lower them.

I realise that I am "preaching to the choir" here, as the diabetics on this site are among the minority who *do* understand this, and a community like this is wonderful for helping people to understand the steps they can take to help themselves. It's just a shame that this can't be said for many people, who simply have never had the full implications of diabetes (or alcohol, drug abuse) explained to them properly, in a way they can understand and without the nagging or "bullying" for want of a better word that some medical professionals seem to use. (I'd just like to add at this point that I don't think most individual doctors/nurses are to blame for this, rather the policies that the PCTs and government lay upon them.) A problem for many type 2s on this site is reluctance or refusal by medical professionals to prescribe test strips, and I see this as an extension of the same problem - because doctors are not used to people understanding and wanting to help themselves that they don't know how to deal with those who do! Again this is in great part on the shoulders of those higher up who are trying to save money rather than individuals.

Wow, apologies for the essay and congratulations to anyone who has made it this far! I do feel strongly about this issue though, as the people who run our country seem to have this warped view that most people are not only not as intelligent as them, but are also incapable of learning about and understanding issues that affect them! And not just in the health service either...but I'll save that for another day :wink:
xx

Wow, apologies for the essay and congratulations to anyone who has made it this far!

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Ok I'll admit I did skip some of that! But I knew I was at risk when my mother was diagnosed, and although a big bloke (not fat!) I keep fit by playing badminton in the local league going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week. But I still got diagnosed about 4 weeks ago. I kept to wholemel foods and have never been a fan of sugary stuff ( except treacle sponge and custard, which I never got much of anyway!) So I think I did what I could reasonably do to minimise my risks. Without blaming mum I guess it was probably inevitable but hey ho it's not the end of the world I will lose the weight, which is hard as I was active anyway and make sure this illness I didn't ask for or bring on myself wont ruin my life.

I can understand how some T1's can feel that some T2s have only themselves to blame but i do think its a pity that they, and some doctors have swallowed the goverment line about T2 being mainly a lifestyle disease.

I think it is far more complicaed than that. I am always being told by HCP's that noone knows what triggers diabetes . Some carry the gene and never develop the disease. Some carry it around for years and show no symptoms.

Perhaps obesity does trigger it in some. I know many non-diabetics who are obese and many diabetics who are very slim.

I am sure many .like myself have missed being diagnosed because they were not overweight.
I have worked with several people ,young, apparently fit and healthy , certainly not overweight
who collapsed sufddenly and were found to be diabetic . Both tyoes.
In fact my image of a diabetic used to be that of someone slim and wiry!

I am sure some people are overweight or overeat because they are diabetic and nt the other way around.

The only time in my life i have felt hungry was after i was prescribed amaryl when I found myself stuffing a piece of dry bread into my mouth to stifle the hunger pangs. I was not on any sort of diet but can' even remeber picking up the bread.

I feel sorry for anyone who constantly suffers terrible hunger pangs. My docor laughed when i told him but it was the truth.

If the population as a whole has grown bigger then I don't think it srange that many more people are being diagnosed wih diabetes. We are actively seeking it out now. I am sure many must have died undiagnosed in the past.

of course noone wants this horrible disease but it has always been with us. certainly educae people as much as possible and help them to deal with it but I wonder if there is really more of it around .or if it is actively searched for and diagnosed now.

It is too simplistic to blame people. In spite of all the hype and advertising campaigns the advice and help given to the newly diagnosed is often inadequate and someimes even counter- productive.

tell the population as a whole to stop eating and exercise certainly but help those who are unfortunate enugh to have any type of diabetes.

In my youth "swinging sixies" we were all skinny . We ate a high protein diet much lower carb diet then and there was much less fast food and processed food. there was still diabetes/

unbeliever said:

I am sure some people are overweight or overeat because they are diabetic and nt the other way around.

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Church!

I hate the way that the media generalises about diabetics and the whole 'blame' culture.

My husband was diagnosed Type 2 about 8 years ago. We suspected diabetes because of the classic raging thirst but when he visited the doc he was told, rather patronisingly, that he couldn't have diabetes because he 'wasn't overweight'. A blood sample was taken, more to humour him than anything and an hour later the doc was phoning the house asking him to come back urgently as he had a reading of 32! Thankfully it had reduced by the time he got back to the surgery otherwise he'd have been admitted to hospital.

As soon as he was put on the recommended diet and medication the weight piled on and he was overweight for the first time in his life (53 years). With insulin came more weight. Recently, with the help of this forum (and Gary Taubes) we've educated ourselves and switched to a low carb diet. This has resulted in easy weight loss (2 stone each since Christmas) and much improved BS control and reduced medication for my husband.

I believe that the current 'blame culture' where we, as individuals, are responsible for every illness that we suffer from is buying into a sort of comfort blanket. We can assuage our fear if we can find the 'fault' with other people that causes their illness - they're fat, they smoke, they don't exercise - the inference being that we'll be okay if we don't do that.

The dual downsides of that are that firstly we have a society that encourages us to feel that certain people 'deserve' to be sick and secondly that we may feel the need to drive ourselves into the ground to follow (imo) misguided, at best and constantly changing government guidelines on how to stay healthy.

I hope you (and your husband) stick around, wiredwoman. You're the absolute CLASSIC example of the misinformation (read: DAMAGING information) we are fed, and the CLASSIC example of someone that takes all the available information on board and makes the correct changes.

Welcome aboard!

I'm not obese either, nor do I drink alcohol. I really find it insulting when it is suggested that my diabetes is my own fault. I have been to several local help groups, where even other diabetics start with "right it's all our own fault for being obese and drinking too much". One group was run by three nurses, diabetics, two of whom were clearly obese, so why were they giving me advice on what to eat? I could not eat as much as most of the recommendations. I have a gluten sensitivity, and other related problems, and I'm pretty certain that there is a link to T2 diabetes, but no-one will admit it. I will only listen to scientifically backed opinion, not the 'obesity and drinking" drivel which comes from so many sources. Peter.

You too, Pete! Stick around!!!

I have been type 1 diabetic since the age of 25 and have managed well for the past 43 years.

When I started in medicine in 1967 I saw few diabetics in hospital and when I entered general practice I could number the diabetics that I personally dealt with in single figures. Before I retired 3 years ago, I knew several hundred diabetics in the practice, the vast majority type 2 and generally overweight or obese.

I know that we are now more on the lookout for diabetes nowadays, but I refuse to believe that the vast increases in diabetic numbers is solely because of better detection. When I was young, obesity did not exist among my schoolmates (late 1940s and 1950s, during the earlier years of which post-World War 2 rationing was still in action - sweet and sugar rationing ended in 1953). Everyone at that time took much more exercise (often in the form of physical work), food intake was much lower than today and motor cars were nowhere near as numerous as today e.g. children could play games in the street and only occasionally have to stop to allow a vehicle to pass).

There has been a huge increase of the number of obese people over the past few years. When I walked down our local high street during my school years I rarely saw an obese person. Nowadays I have to look hard to find those whose weight is normal.

Genetics is involved, I agree, but I have no doubt that several factors are responsible for the explosion in type 2 diabetes; the availabity of high CHO/high energy foods and the general very low level of physical activity. No one becomes obese overnight. A small daily excess of calories in over calories out slowly but surely leads to weight increase. Unfortunately, for too many people the calories in figure is much higher than the calories out.

I respect the opinion offered by smcc, but I recall the 50's too. In those days, fat was "good for you". I hated it, it made me sick, in any form, and still does. In the 1950s, when older generations met, "You are looking well" usually meant "you look a little fat"; it was true enough, a sign that the recipient was getting enough to eat. In my family, type 2 occurred mainly after traumatic events; my mother's uncle, had a foot shot off in WW1, which was always the explanation for his diabetes. My father had a major heart attack, and was suddenly diabetic. I had a hernia operation, after which I was diagnosed diabetic - I must have been tested dozens of times before that with no problem. I accept that the genetic tendency might have been there, but trauma was the trigger in some or all of these examples. Why is it never mentioned these days, when it was common knowledge 50 years ago?

smcc - let's not forget that although a large percentage of T2 Diabetics ARE overweight, only a very small percentage of overweight people are T2 Diabetic...