What is it that would make diabetics happiest?

[KimSuzanne]

Doctors and nurses that treat each diabetic and their condition as an individual - not as a nameless faceless case study they did at medical school!
I must be the only person who would consider not having a cure - it would be hard to adjust I've had it all my life!

 

[fergus]

That's a top find, timo.
Going to open another bottle of Shiraz to toast their success. On the assumption that a hangover cure won't be far behind.

fergus

 

[lilibet]

In order
A cure
A cure
A cure

However, if thats not allowed then insulin/system that thinks for you and reacts to your sugars as and when its needed rather than you having to do it (artificial pancreas I suppose).

Also, insulin that has shorter profiles. Works in 15 mins ( i know there is Apidra etc) but only lasts for duration of two or so hours, so that it wasnt floating about too much after the food is gone and interfering with basal, make it easier to snack, work out exercise etc.

Also, recognition of low carb and a section in supermarkets for this. There must be enough diabetics following low carb diets as there as coeliac sufferers to justify stocking it.

I would quite like to win the lottery too (well.... you did ask what would make diabetics happiest and last I checked I was diabetic)

L

 

[wpaisley]

Having a Doctor who understood how to treat Diabetes

 

[iHs]

Also, insulin that has shorter profiles. Works in 15 mins ( i know there is Apidra etc) but only lasts for duration of two or so hours, so that it wasnt floating about too much after the food is gone and interfering with basal, make it easier to snack, work out exercise etc.

L

You and me both. Although I use Apidra, I would swap to use Viaject (Biodel) or Ora-lyn (Generex). Let's hope these insulins become a reality for us all sometime soon.

 

[janabelle]

Hi
Lots of the above plus;
Doctors to stop pushing analogue insulins like it's a wonderdrug.
Pharmaceutical companies banned from calling synthetic insulin "Human" insulin
Awareness of the difference between type-1 & 2 and NO misleading campaigns abut fat diabetics.
Newly diagnosed & current Diabetic patients given the choice of synthetic OR animal insuin.
Major Pharmaceutical companies who discontinued their range of animal insulins in recent years to re-start manufacture.
If Lantus (Glargine) was discontinued I'd be a very happy woman.
I agree with Fergus-dietitians need to review dietry advice to diabetics, less carbs is the key.
Jus

 

[rottweilsteve]

A cure?

And if not a cure, a doctor who has, and is open about having diabetes...

Steve

 

[cally]

I would like a fast acting insulin that is really fast!! As Novorapid is not rapid enough for me

 

[ShyGirl]

 

[cavillas]

NOT being diabetic

 

[FUSILIER]

To be able to go out with Friends, not have to carry a blood sugar monitor and to be able to say THAT WAS A GOOD NIGHT OUT

 

[lucyg]

I would like needles that screwed easily onto the insulin pens. I can't be the only person irritated by this. Can I?

 

[HpprKM]

Food manufacturers using less sugar. I have recently returned from a trip to Canada (I am a frequent visitor as have dual nationality, have lived there and have two sons and other family there). I was quite surprised to find some many nice things available to eat for diabetics. For starters they have ice cream using sweeters instead of sugar, biscuits (would you believe Peek Frean no longer avaliable in UK) that have some really good ingredients health wise and no sugar, and I found a most delicious line in chocolate sweets in the drug store! Just wondering when UK food manufacturers will wake up and smell the coffee and realise how many people in UK would buy their sugar free products. Whilst on the subject, Sainsburys sell sugar free chocolate and low fat, sugar free marshmallows, aside of that there are only the usual sources i.e. specialist foods available to the best of my knowledge :twisted:

 

[SULLY]

for people to stop offering you things you know are bad for your health when your are trying to keep your weight down aswell ,Iget fed up of them saying you will be ok ,my sister is diabetic and she eats iced buns, choclate bars ,and shes ok ,but I say how long does her sister want to live?they just do not understand , and wont listen,Iwould be happy if people would listen and try to help.

 

[grastiv]

Why dont you live the life of a Type 1 for a month? You will soon appreciate the difficulties, pain, inconvenience etc. etc.
In my opinion thats where most of the practicioners, developers and researches fall down, they simply have no appreciation of what it is like to live with Type 1 diabetes.
Try testing your blood 6 to 8 times a day; taking 5 or six shots (I'm not suggesting that you take insulin but say perhaps sterile water); try to count the carbs in everything you consume; don't go anywhere without your test kit and 'insulin' pen, needles etc; try to do you testing and shots discretely. If you do this for a month you will have at least a small understanding of what a Type 1 has to do for life and you might be able to answer your own question to some extent.
I personally have always considered the equipment to be a real pain in the a**s, and thought that in this day and age we could do a lot better in terms of miniturisation and convenience.

Love to here how you get on and best of luck with your studies.

 

[Dennis]

Food manufacturers using less sugar.

I don't think anyone could argue with that. If you look at the amount of sugar that is used in every processed product it is astonishing. And the reason - primarily two reasons:
- sugar is a relatively cheap bulking agent, you can reduce the costly nutritious ingredients and substitute with a cheaper alternative;
- sugar is incredibly addictive - it triggers production of high amounts of seratonin in the brain, and seratonin itself makes you crave more sugar! Manufacturers add more sugar in order to get customers hooked on their product over that of a rival, so the rival ups their sugar content . . and so it goes on.

I have recently returned from a trip to Canada . . . . I was quite surprised to find some many nice things available to eat for diabetics. For starters they have ice cream using sweeters instead of sugar, biscuits (would you believe Peek Frean no longer avaliable in UK) that have some really good ingredients health wise and no sugar, and I found a most delicious line in chocolate sweets in the drug store!

Canada and the USA by no means dominate the market in confectionary for diabetics. Boots sell a whole range of "diabetic" foods, as do many of the supermarket chains and chocolatiers. They nearly all have one thing in common, the sugar substitute is invariably one of the polyols, sorbitol or maltitol, two of the most powerful laxatives known to man! They are also advertised as being sugar-free, which is technically correct. Polyols are not sugar (sucrose) but they are sugar alcohols, and will raise blood sugar although not by as much as sugar does. If you get hooked on them just don't stray too far from a loo!!

 

[Pickwick]

What would make me happy (apart from the obvious of having to be a member of a club I never asked to join) would be for medical professionals to start taking diabetes seriously, and to admit - as I've found beyond question - that there's a whole more that they don't know (especially about T2) than they do know.

Other problems beside diabetes don't give me an impressive life expectancy, but I'm retired and I more or less abandoned my cunning plan to live forever some time ago.

But what worries me more than that is the burgeoning prevalence of diabetes (the reasons for which need far more intensive research than doctors' current glib rationalisations) and the wholesale lack of any real game plan for a future generation. I fear newer generations are looking at huge future problems unless the extended medical professions get their fingers out soon.

 

[anfieldlass]

Big cereal companies such as kellogs listening to the consumer about the amoount of sugar and Glucose Syrup in their products.
I get so cross when i see an advert from a Chef encouraging us the public to eat Optiva because 'it can help to lower Cholesterol' how dare they say that without acknowledging that that particular product has 3/4 lots of sugar & Gluose Syrup.
When i wrote a letter of complaint stating this i received a reply to the effect that because of the fibre content as a diabetic it would actualy do me good !!!!
I am Type 2 and just gone onto tablets after 10 years diet only...... trying now to get my weight down to see if i will eventualy be able to reduce the amount of tablets!!!!

 

[Dennis]

When i wrote a letter of complaint stating this i received a reply to the effect that because of the fibre content as a diabetic it would actualy do me good !!!!

Absolutely right too anfieldlass. When you're blind and limbless and have to be wheeled to the loo in a pushchair, I'm sure you'll thank Kellogs every day for all the fibre you're getting!! :mrgreen:

 

[bumblejoy]

having a doctor that listens and does not assume that you want to take all the meds
not thinking about being a diabetic for one day!
for once my mum not saying 'should you be eating that' ?