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Offended by official, mandatory training material...

MarkE

Well-Known Member
Messages
72
Location
Milton Keynes
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Woo
I sometimes get truly annoyed by the sheer insensitivity and stupidity I encounter...

Today, while working on the latest batch of mandatory online learning material for my job- a national finance operation, BTW- I found myself staring at the term "lifestyle diabetes". No type II, no explanation, just ruddy "lifestyle".

Grrrrrrrrrrr.
 
It's meaningless; but it is a way of blaming people for their condition, especially in the media
 
Is this the company you work for? If so I would be dropping a line about discrimination to the HR department.
Then again when I was working I was a bit of a stirrer... managed to get Deutsche Bank to accept same sex partners for various "married" benefits ..... eventually
 
Yup, I was diagnosed with Type 1 at 4 and I still get idiots who jump to the conclusion that I'm a Type 2 and I'm at fault due to lifestyle choices for having diabetes with remarks like "Gee you must have lost a lot of weight, you look great now" and "I imagine you wished you looked after yourself better when you were younger". They say High Blood Pressure can be a complication of diabetes and I must say - I suspect my Blood Pressure goes thru the roof after hearing remarks like the ones I just mentioned. It's too bad respectable organizations or businesses are still perpetuating that lifestyle myth.

Just to further add to your rant - you see rants are infectious - I remember when they used to show physically feeble children and adults as the poster child of diabetes fund raising campaigns when I was a kid. It got to the point where I didn't want anyone to know I had diabetes Lol ...
 

It is, and I have indeed let HR know that it is offensive material. Berks!
 
I do think the way the media portrays diabetes is a big part of the problem with things like this.

That said, when I was doing my A levels, my biology teacher told me that I must be wrong, I couldn't possibly have diabetes, since I wasn't born with it, and I wasn't "fat enough" to have the "other kind". And this woman had a biology degree!
 
Yes, I'm prediabetic with a BMI of 18.5! with a love of wholefoods and a dislike of added sugar!
 
When I was about 14 my cookery teacher told the entire class you got diabetes because you were overweight, this was in the 1980's, I wanted to shrink as all my classmates knew I was diabetic and all looked around 'as they do' (I was a very skinny teenager so at least that helped with my shame!), I told my mum when I got home as I was so upset, I was a very shy youngster and tried my hardest to hide from my diabetes. My mum told my diabetic nurse (whom was an amazing woman) she was so annoyed that she went into the school in order to 're-educate' them!! At the time I could of died but thinking back someone obviously saw the injustice in it!
 
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I am not convinced the term will go away either, it will probably evolve to something they can stick on holiday and health insurance and the likes, just another loophole for the insurers.
 
I'm 45 and have just been diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic. I am fed up of people assuming I developed this because I am fat, lazy and eat **** and that it was my own fault for not looking after myself! I am a little overweight, but not obese by any standard, and that has only been in the last couple of years. I eat a balanced diet with plenty of whole grains and very little added sugar, and I'm quite active. I hate telling anyone about my diabetes because of this. Even type 1 diabetics seem to have this attitude, that they have 'proper' diabetes, but type 2 is self-inflicted!!! Sorry about the rant but it really gets my back up!
 
The problem is also exacerbated by some diabetics themselves. The last time I had my retinal screening in the summer I was in the waiting area with a dozen or so others. Men and women. The men particularly had huge beer bellies hanging down over their belts, and the women weren't a lot better with spare tyres larger than tree trunks. They were all diabetic or they wouldn't have been there. Now I have no idea if these people had other problems preventing weight loss and why they were obese, but anyone passing along the corridor couldn't help but notice and would simply assume it was a life style issue.

I'm sorry if this offends anyone. I was overweight myself when diagnosed, but it is what I saw.
 
This is very true @Bluetit1802 . It's unfortunate, because it unnecessarily attaches a 'label' to everyone. Of course, it doesn't help that many people, having been diagnosed with diabetes, are told to eat lots and lots of carbohydrate! What is really worrying is the extent to which this belief exists in the medical profession - I too had my eye screening over the summer, and found myself in a very similar situation to you, maybe about 30 people, exactly as you describe, many with obvious complications (blindness, missing feet, the lot). When I was called for the pre-check, the nurse was extremely confused and asked if I was in the right place, then asked me if I was diabetic, and was extremely confused by the concept of a type 1, so goodness only knows what she would have said had she been presented with a Type 2 who looks after themselves.

I think part of the problem, as well, is that it is used as a 'scare tactic' in schools - when I did my GCSEs, the textbooks said 'diabetes is caused by overreating and not exercising enough', it's always mentioned as being a risk, which is great if it motivates people to improve their lifestyles, but it also gives people who don't have a full understanding of what either type really is an easy way to blame us for having diabetes and using up their NHS resources.
 

I 'hear' what you say, MarkE, but it's not quite stupidity but rather ignorance of the FACTS. This, however, is not only down to individuals, but also organisations such as diabetes.co.uk that actually give the WRONG 'normal' fasting glucose levels for non-diabetics. They don't seem to recognise that there's a pre-diabetes.

If organisations such as this can't even get it right, how are individuals meant to learn about diabetes?
 

It's a shame how many people believe that you must be born with type 1. It's actually extremely rare to be born with it.
 

Sadly, mamwoody, the media don't even seem to realise that weight and/or being non-active are only two of the 'risk factors' in someone developing type 2 diabetes. There are others, too.
 

To be fair, there actually isn't such a thing as pre-diabetes. Up to an including an HbA1c of 47 a person is non-diabetic. Pre-diabetes isn't a condition. It is when a person's glucose is approaching diabetes and they are deemed to be at risk. There is no official diagnosis because it isn't an illness, just a risk of becoming diabetic in the future.

What do you consider to be a "normal" fasting glucose for non-diabetics? I can't actually see where diabetes.co.uk has stated this. That column is blank, as is the one for T2. http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/blood-sugar-level-ranges.html
 
micksmixxx said:
Sadly, mamwoody, the media don't even seem to realise that weight and/or being non-active are only two of the 'risk factors' in someone developing type 2 diabetes. There are others, too.
Click to expand...
Of which being white, over forty, thyroid problems and autoimmune problems (all of which I fell into - and being overweight due to the last 2!). The sad part is that anyone with an underactive thyroid is more at risk of developing diabetes. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as they say!
 

That's right, Nicksu, but the media conveniently forgets to tell people that.
 

Thank you for your response Bluetit1802, but I disagree with you about there not being such a thing as pre-diabetes. Doctors around the world diagnose pre-diabetes (formerly known as borderline diabetes) when a person's blood sugar (glucose) levels are higher than the 'normal' range, but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetic.

On the same page that you offer a link to, if you scroll down the page a little it states:

"Normal and diabetic blood sugar ranges
For the majority of healthy individuals, normal blood sugar levels are as follows:

  • Between 4.0 to 6.0 mmol/L (72 to 108 mg/dL) when fasting
  • Up to 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL) 2 hours after eating
For people with diabetes, blood sugar level targets are as follows:

  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/L for people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes
  • After meals: under 9 mmol/L for people with type 1 diabetes and under 8.5mmol/L for people with type 2 diabetes"
which is erroneous.
 
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