Diabetes: Are you Listening?

When I first learned I had Juvenile Diabetes, I was shocked scared and extremely confused about what that would mean in regards to my family and me. All I did know was what I thought was a disease for people of larger body size could in fact happen to anyone, even a fifteen year old very thin athlete. It has been 4 years since my diagnosis and there is still a lot about my disease I do not know and a lot about the other half of my disease I am unclear on. The disease I have is Type 1 Diabetes and the disease most people hear about and seem to know more about is Type 2 Diabetes. The main difference between the two is mine is hereditary, type 2 is self-inflicted.  Unfortunately there is nothing I could have done to prevent my illness. Eating the standard American diet causes many health issues one of which being Type 2 Diabetes and a huge part of the reason why the American death rate seems to increase yearly.  

Most of us know a person with diabetes whether it is a cousin a grandmother a parent or even a friend’s mother’s uncle but there seems to always be one person. How do I know this? No matter which form of diabetes a person has usually the response from others is the same. Those people we tell say, “Oh yeah, my grandmother has diabetes.” Or, “Oh, so you can’t have sugar.” Or some form of those sentences. What people don’t realize is that every person with diabetes is different and their process as well as experience is different. Very few people listen when someone lets them know of their disease because of what they think they know from that grandmother who has diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes can happen at any age depending on the amount of food put into a person’s system and is becoming more likely in children. Hillary Carroll, at the time ten years old was overweight and diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and unfortunately this was eye opener for people to realize. “Not only are these kids likely to face a lifetime of problems--including higher risks of blindness, heart disease and stroke--they are also a warning sign that something in our way of life has gone terribly wrong.” (Gorman, 2003) A scary thought of one day going blind because of this illness is something that crosses a diabetes mind more often than not. From what I have experienced from this disease losing your sight is one of the most frightening things I’ve dealt with and is something I will never want to relive. This illness is not something that usually goes away for those lucky ones it is a possibility but for most diabetics it is something that is forever prominent. 

Photograph of a diagram of how Type 2 Diabetes occurs in the body. Source: http://www.diabeticrockstar.com/type-2-diabetes.html

In the documentary King Corn two men explore the different aspects that are involved in eating and growing the standard American diet. During the video they encounter a Brooklyn, New York cab driver named Fray Mendez who has a family history with Diabetes. Mendez reveals this disease has affected his entire family for he and his sister have it and both his mother and grandmother passed away from diabetes. If the seriousness of this disease has yet to shock you, Mendez also expresses his dad had his leg amputated because of diabetes. Any cuts or scratches mainly on feet and legs diabetics must address immediately because infections can occur quickly resulting in this like amputation. Fray Mendez stopped drinking items like soda in order to save his life. Mendez made the filmmakers understand most people “Don’t think about what we’re putting into our system.” (Wool, 2007) Such carelessness is what ends people in the situation Fray Mendez and his family are in and so many other families.

Did you ever notice that when people go on a diet they never want to call it a diet? A lot of time you get a response like, “It’s not a diet, it is a lifestyle.” This is not a fancy way of saying diet because it is true. In order to be healthier you need to change your life or else diseases like diabetes will change it for you. The growth rate of diabetes is not getting any smaller it shows, “Among Americans 30 and older, 13.7 percent of men and 11.9 percent of women have diabetes.” (Bakalar, 2009) At the age 30 and older people have to completely change their lives around because they couldn't take better care of themselves. It is hard to find a person that doesn't have diabetes but it is even harder to find a person that asks what having this disease is like instead of assuming they know because their relative has it. Type 2 diabetes is a frightening disease and with the way Americans eat as pointed out in the King Corn documentary we are headed down a dangerous path.

Making changes in our diet is only the first step in avoiding a disease full of struggle and tedious actions. No one wants to see their ten year old child have to take pills or do a shot of insulin every time they want a snack. The choices parents make could be the difference between their child getting a simple cut from the playground to getting an infection and needing a new leg before middle school. What we put into our bodies is important because it affects more than just you, Type 2 is where it begins and soon Type 1 is where it will never end.

References

Bakalar, N. (2009) Diabetes: A State-by-State Breakdown. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/health/13stat.html?_r=0

Gorman, C. (2003) Health: Why So Many of Us Are Getting Diabetes. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1006377,00.html

Woolf, A. ( Director). (2007). King Corn [DVD]. United States: Mosaic Films

Appendix A

Photograph of a boy with diabetes giving him-self a shot of insulin in order to control his blood sugar levels. Source: http://www.google.com/imgres?start=85&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=624&authuser=0&tbm=isch&tbnid=sj2PT3EdiJGEM:&imgrefurl=http://www.dailygossip.org/effective-new-treatment-for-type-2-diabetes-in-youth 3448&docid=IwgxODKnptKHRM&imgurl=http://www.dailygossip.org/media/posts/2833-490x360.jpg&w=490&h=360&ei=2eLPUIuTH8Px0wGZ9oHADg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=373&vpy=4&dur=60&hovh=192&hovw=262&tx=126&ty=121&sig=112552583059834131570&page=4&tbnh=138&tbnw=188&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:100,i:7