Diabetes: People Don’t Get How Serious It Is

Note from Connie: This is scary news indeed. Thanks to the Tara Parker-Pope of The New York Times, we learned about focus groups conducted by the American Diabetes Association, which found that people just aren’t as worried about diabetes as they are about cancer and heart disease. Jennifer Moore brings you the story.

Participants in focus groups conducted by the ADA, generally ranked diabetes a 4 or 5 (out of 10) in severity whereas they gave 9 or 10 scores to cancer and heart disease, according to Tara Parker-Pope’s article in The New York Times.

If these focus groups are any indication of what most Americans think of diabetes, people need a massive wake-up call.

Yes, people can and do live with diabetes. Medications enable diabetics to live longer that they would otherwise, and maybe that creates the impression that diabetes isn’t such a bad thing.  (People aren’t aware that people with diabetes are at greater risk of heart disease, for example, which the focus groups rightly identified as a major problem.)

But people shouldn’t be fooled by the fact that people manage to live with diabetes.

“It is a disease that does have the ability to eat you alive,” ADA president of medicine and science Dr. John Buse says in Parker-Pope’s piece in The New York Times. “It can be just awful — it’s almost unimaginable how bad it can be.”

So just how awful can diabetes get? Check out Parker-Pope’s story for more details on how considerable the damage diabetes can do a person’s body, from head to toe.

The good news is that while way too many Americans already have type 2 diabetes, it is preventable for many people if they eat well, stay trim and exercise. But we can’t let our guard down and think that just because diabetes is treatable that it’s not serious. It is extremely serious, and in some cases, deadly.

Thanks to Parker-Pope on this eye-opening story.

Jennifer Moore for the SUGAR SHOCK! Blog

One thought on “Diabetes: People Don’t Get How Serious It Is

  1. Dear Ms. Connie,
    My dad (DeWayne McCulley) almost died from a diabetic coma, but with my help, he beat the disease and wrote the book “Death to Diabetes.”
    He is very smart but uses humor to educate other diabetics:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mdxBSl-Xc
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ECUOu2rFto
    Can you help spread his story?
    Thank you for your time.
    Sincerely,
    Cynthia
    Contact info for my dad:
    http://www.deathtodiabetes.com
    Note from Connie: Unfortunately, I can’t do much other than post your comment. I’m very carefully watching what I take on now, especially since I have to rest a lot with my recent Lyme disease diagnosis.

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