Are T1 and T2 at war?!??

[mg_2204]

Hello everyone!

Had a discussion this week-end about diabetes... and I really don't know what to think now. Care to leave your comments please?

I was told a type 2 person got what he/she deserved from not eating well and not taking care of his/her health. And type 1 people kind of look down on T2 for it. Ack! Never heard such a thing!!! How about you guys?

I'm aware there are 2 types of diabetes. I'm also aware being insulin-dependant is different from being diet controlled. But aren't we all struggling to stay healthy and ... somehow get better?!?? Aren't we all hoping for a cure one day???

In my opinion, the goal is the same : to lead a full normal life and be happy.

Have a great week all!

Marie

[am1977]

In my opinion, type 1 and type 2 are definitely different. I'm not saying that if you are type 2 you deserve to get Diabetes, I feel no one deserves this disease. I do feel that Type 2 does have to do w/ lifestyle choices, however. Type 1 is different in that it's in autoimmune disease. Our body, in a way, turns on itself. It does not reflect lifestyle choices.

[snydermom]

How stupid those people are! We are all in this boat together and the why's & how's make little difference once you're dealing with dm.

I guess my Ed is a good example of one who should be "looked down on". While he's classified as T1 & on injections and there is dm in his family - I have no doubt it's from the years of alcohol and bouts of pancreatitis.

What MATTERS is the here and now.

Should we tell people with lung cancer "Die, Sucker, Die" because you were too weak to kick an addiction? Or stroke & heart attack victims "You got what you deserved" because it was cholesterol related?

[duck]

I don't look down on Type 2's, but I get mad at the ones who could control it by exercising a bit of discretion...I wish I could regulate my affliction by exercising and "eating well"...sigh.

[mg_2204]

Hello Duck!

Could you elaborate on 'exercising a bit of discretion' please? I would really like to understand what I said or did wrong to that person... so maybe I can put everything right again :)

Thank you!

Marie

[rzrbks]

Meadow Muffins

Genetics is the major reason we all have Diabetes. If you want to blame someone, blame the Drs who kept our ancestors alive to pass this disease on to us.

Playing the blame game is stupid. We're here and "it don't matter sum atall" (Justin Wilson) how we got here. Let's move on.

[snydermom]

rz - As I've said many times ... I'm a "tad" slow? Meadow Muffins are B*ll Sh*t ... right???? :whistling

Scarey - but ANOTHER time I totally agree with you!!! :D

[rzrbks]

snydermom

rz - As I've said many times ... I'm a "tad" slow? Meadow Muffins are B*ll Sh*t ... right???? :whistling


Could Be. Bulls, horses, cows, sheep......pert near anything that leaves them little "Pods" or "Muffins" out there----Col. Sherman Potter(M-A-S-H) never really clarified

[Mick]

Having been what they used to call a "Puberty onset" diabetic (dx'ed at the age of almost 13, in 1965), I've heard this battle raging back and forth most of my life. Most of the arguements I hear regarding type 2 being a "lifestyle disease" vs. type 1 striking innocent children hits very close to home for me. I was a normal, carefree kid, with no history of any type of diabetes on either side of my family. I was diagnosed--in a DKA coma, blood glucose of 1000--just a few months after my grandmother was diagnosed type 2. I was 12 and weighed 62 lbs. She was 65 and probably weighed 250 lbs. She ate what she wanted, however much she wanted. I watched, counted, weighed and logged every bite I ate. She took 2 pills a day, I injected insulin twice a day through a huge needle that I had to boil each time I used it. She stayed obese, I grew muscular through constant exercise and dieting. Every morning and evening, I had to pee in a cup, dilute with water in a test tube, then boil it with benedict's solution and compare the color to a chart to see if I was "spilling sugar". Grandma played Mah Jong and read the newspaper... Grandma also died of heart disease...

I believe she would have lived many more years IF she had the discipline to do what I HAD to do. I now have many type 2 friends. None of them have been diabetic for more than 15 years, compared to my 38 years. None of them tests as often as I do, none of them exercise as often as I do, none of their diets are as strict as mine, and none of them have blood glucose levels in as tight a range as mine are. None of them are anywhere near their ideal weight (I am slightly underweight), ALL of them are overweight, a few of them grossly so. Several of them already have significant complications in return for their lack of self-discipline--Neuropathy, retinopathy, foot infections, glaucoma, and one is in kidney dialysis. Every single one of my type 2 friends is having health issues due to their lack of self-control, their denial of the serious nature of diabetes, and their refusal to do the extremely hard work of diabetes self-care.

I am also in a support group of long-term type 1s. All of us have had it for over 25 years, our oldest member was diagnosed in 1943 at the age of 5, and most of us remember sharpening the needles of our glass syringes on a whetstone every few weeks to keep it sharp enough to penetrate the skin. Most of us are in our 50s, were diagnosed in the 1960s, and went for 25 or more years before home glucose monitors were even available. Although some of us do, after many decades of struggle and battle, have some complications, we are, by and large, as a group, doing significantly better that our type 2 counterparts. Why...?

It's a question I ask a lot, but refuse to answer, as my answers always inflame this issue. Is it a lifestyle choice? Is it that we got it as children and never knew anything else, had no lifestyle to change, but, like old dogs, older adults cannot be taught new tricks? Not a single one of us type 1s has issues with denial or refusal to take care of our disease. All of my type 2 friends have continuing issues with denial and refusal. I make no claim as regards "which type is worse." Both are difficult, serious, demanding and challenging. But a person diagnosed type 2 at age 50 (a common "average" age for it...) will have gone only 12 years when they reach retirement at 62. I'll have racked up 50 years by then... THAT is a significant difference. 50 years of self-denial, 50 years of injections (that'll be a total of about 56,000 injections in those 50 years...), 50 years of tests and dietary restrictions and promises of cures. 50 years of counting carbs and battling hypos, not to mention battling doctors, nurses, drug companies, insurance companies, employers and government agencies for equal rights, access to decent care, and access to opportunities and information.

None of us "has it easy." Some of us just make poor choices...
No pity--just understanding...
Michael

[rzrbks]

Good stuff, Mick.

Funny thing is I am one of the older ones, DX'd at 49. I have much better control than most, last A1c 5.2, BUT, I have gained weight since Dx'd and the PCP and Diabetic health group tell me I'm doing very well.

5' 10 3/4", 200 lbs. :confused:

I've just got to believe that there are people who are working harder than I am whose body's just Will Not cooperate with them and what they are trying to do.

I know that when I had my heart attack, at 42, I was even "healthier" than I am now. My **** body just wouldn't go along with me. :D

Each person is different. Each person has different fears, strengths, weaknesses, abilities etc. ad nauseum. Each of us is different and must accept each other for what we are. Can any of us do better? Of course, all of us can. Should I be the judge for you and you be the judge for me? PfFThTh--I don't think so.

A Famous Dude once said something like:
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." I suspect that was meant to apply not only to people who cheat on their spouses, the case being dealt with at the time, but should be applied to everything in the Human Life.

[Jon]

I don't see a war between t1 and t2, but I do see a problem with ignorance of type 1 because type 2 is the more common form of diabetes. T1 is rare enough that the average person knows nothing about it. This leads to people saying "You shouldn't be eating that! Aren't you diabetic?" and similar phrases. I can see why some T1's might resent T2's.

[Andrea]

I hope there isn't any war going on! NOBODY deserves to have diabetes. Type 1, type 2, gestational, LADA, MODY.... whatever type they have. I agree that there is a huge lack of education among the general public as well as, unfortunately, among many people living with diabetes.

There is lack of knowledge as to who gets the diabetes, and why. What the risk factors are for the different types. What the differences are between the different types. What the current treatments are. The fact that everyone is affected by diabetes in a different way and needs to have a treatment that is taylored specifically for them as an individual. The fact that no type of diabetes is more or less severe than another type... I could go on and on!

Mick, if your grandmother had had the education about her disease that you had, i think you are right, she would have lived longer and healthier. At the time, in the 60's, they still didn't realise the full extent of what lifestyle changes could do in the treatment of diabetes.

While it is true that we know now that many many cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented with lifestyle changes, that does not make anyone diagnosed with type 2 at fault for getting the disease. Most of them have no idea that they are at risk or that there is a way to reduce their risk. Lifestyle factors are only part of the risk anyway. We can't do anything about our age, our family history of type 2 diabetes, our race...

Andrea

[Shalyndria]

What's that old saying? "Hindsight is 20/20" To me, Type II is a disease of it's own that is separate but for some similar characteristics to Type I. What it all comes down to, though, is that it's a disease. And nobody, no matter what their lifestyle, deserves any disease.
On a personal note, I have a younger sister who is heavy (the only one of the three of us girls) and I often worry that if she is not careful, she will be prone to Type II or heart disease etc. But should that ever happen, I would not blame her. She has talked to me about deep-seated psychological reasons for her weight, and unless I was experiencing the same fears or barriers to controlling that, I have no right to judge. But then, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't happen. In the end, we each live of freedom of choice and my life has no basis on another's.

Duck,
As a Type I, I do "regulate my affliction" by exercising and eating well. I just also take insulin.

[mg_2204]

Hello everyone, me again...

I have enjoyed reading from you all. A special thank you to Mick for taking the time to explain in depth. I must admit, I had no idea what it's like to be T1 and for so many years. I've always known it was life threatening if the person didn't take the insulin... but that's it. Never occured to me before today that a few years back, the technology wasn't what it is today. So easy to take things for granted, isn't it? Sharpening needles EEeekkKK!! And all the rest. Battling. All the time!

The only T1 person I met (aside from the one the other day) was a guy in high school. He was 15, needed insulin... and always ate chocolate! Maybe that's where I got the false impression taking insulin would make everything alright?!??

There was this young French Canadian champion skier (can't remember her name!) who was 90% blind. To the question : 'What would have you done if you hadn't been blind?' she answered this : 'I would have done what everyone does: become a couch potato!' ... Speaks volume, don't you think? :)

As many of you said, no one deserves to suffer from a disease...

To you all, the very best. Because you sure don't deserve less.

Marie