| Here's my take on it. (And I've watched them grow since the beginning.)
ADA? Cutting-edge they aren't. They do an OK job of keeping 1992 Diabetes knowledge out there. It does help the newly diagnosed--it's agood place to start. Unfortunately, they take so long to change their judgement of treatments, meds, etc that they JUSY NOW decided to endorse a low-carb diet. And only temporarily to lose weight. Who the heck decides these things, Martians who just landed on earth?
ADA has backed legislation to remove discrimination from the workplace and forced schools to deal with previously ignored diabetic children. They took up our cause after 9-11 so that we could take our supplies aboard a plane.
That said, I will NEVER forgive them for not supporting Denise Faustman.
JDRF--Previously JDF. I was thrilled at the beginning, Stood up strongly for stem cell research, backed pump technology and meter research including CGMS. Kept Diabetes fund-raising in the forefront. Mary Tyler Moore, a popular actress admitted publicly to being diabetic. That was a big step in those days.
But along with that came HEAVY politics. Invested in Pump and meter companies-- supposedly for research you understand.. Still backing stem cell research as the best answer. What do you think happened when Faustman's promising research came along based on something already approved? It wasn't a big money maker... This particular thing she was researching had nothing to do with stem cells. If it worked (!) all it would do is actually cure the root cause of diabetes, even in people who had been diabetic for years.
No money? Not an "approved" channel of research? NO INTEREST. In fact, the opposite. Just google JDRF and Faustman.
I haven't given them a penny since that time. I've encouraged my friends to either support Faustmanlabs.com directly or the more broadly-based Iacocca Foundation. Even if Denise Faustman doesn't cure diabetes, she should have been recognized and backed as a strong possibility.
I wish it wasn't so, but in spite of my efforts to resist sounding like a conspiricy theorist, I do believe our country is more run by corporations now than conscience. There are very few Jonas Salks left. Bless his heart for what he did for all of us who are here today, ridding us of Polio.
Just my opinion, you understand. Because you asked.  | 
