Did anyone watch "The Shocking Truth About Diet and Exercise!? On Channel 5

[mashedupmatt]

Absolutely disgraceful comment from a "Doctor" regarding Diabetes (Took me a while but had to upload it to youtube in the end!) - A "lifestyle disease"? - absolutely appalling

 

[Lisa65]

It's disgraceful that this nonsense is still being peddle. We don't get T2 from being fat, if anything it's the other way round! Before being diagnosed back in 2010 I had put a lot of weight on, but that's because I felt ravenous no matter how much I ate.
T2 is hard enough to manage as it is, without this sort of prejudice, assuming we are all obese and lazy and brought it on ourselves 😡

 

[Drummer]

Back when I was doing roady work I was very muscular with a 24 inch waist, and I was told that I was overweight - 147lb, and should limit fat and eat lots of healthy carbs. Forty years later I was massively obese and being told I was a very bad diabetic. None of the HCPs I spoke to did anything but make fun of my claim that their diets did not work - it was just me doing it wrong.
I think I have PTSD of some sort about my weight, due to the way I was treated for so long. All the advice about what to eat was wrong, and doing just the opposite I was no longer diabetic 6 months after diagnosis.

 

[MikeyBikey]

There is a mentslity amongst many to blame people for their ills. Pre BG meters I was hospitalised a number of times and it was always being blamed on me and my diabetes (diagnosed in the swinging sixties) yet I was diagnosed with gastro-enteritis, glandular fever and salmonella food poisoning on three of those occasions. Then more recently when I developed cataracts it was because I had diabetes despite everybody on the female side of the family bar my niece and her 10 y.o. being treated before/after me. Then when I got angina it again was my diabetes despite me having previously raised my concerns that all males on the male side had died prematurely of heart attacks - my father when I was in my twenties and his father when he was 4, plus my father's brother, etc. I ended up having a quadruple bypass. Then when I got PAD as a result of diabetes they tried to bring in the fact I had smoked for two years stopping in 1975 into it. I am sure this ridiculous mindset slows medical advancement in many areas!

 

[JITR]

Absolutely disgraceful comment from a "Doctor" regarding Diabetes (Took me a while but had to upload it to youtube in the end!) - A "lifestyle disease"? - absolutely appalling

The video lasts for 80 minutes. Approximately when does the doctor discuss what he means by "lifestyle disease"?

How else would you describe it, assuming we are talking about the common form of T2D?

 

[beating_my_betes]

We don't get T2 from being fat, if anything it's the other way round!

I can't say that everyone becomes diabetic from being overweight, but it definitely seems to align with the experience of many people.

 

[mashedupmatt]

The video lasts for 80 minutes. Approximately when does the doctor discuss what he means by "lifestyle disease"?

How else would you describe it, assuming we are talking about the common form of T2D?

The clip is where it is said which is wrong - this kind of blaming people for their diabetes is what causes so much stigma regarding the condition and is totally wrong and shouldn't be on mainstream TV and just saying "Diabetes is a Lifestyle Disease" is deeply offensive (I'm type 1 which is an auto-immunne condition and find this comment abhorrent)

 

[Drummer]

I can't say that everyone becomes diabetic from being overweight, but it definitely seems to align with the experience of many people.

I think it is the reverse - as soon as I got my glucose levels down to more normal levels I lost weight without effort, no reduced portions or fewer calories or even increased exercise. One day I stood up and my clothes fell down around my ankles - luckily in private.

 

[beating_my_betes]

The clip is where it is said which is wrong - this kind of blaming people for their diabetes is what causes so much stigma regarding the condition and is totally wrong and shouldn't be on mainstream TV and just saying "Diabetes is a Lifestyle Disease" is deeply offensive (I'm type 1 which is an auto-immunne condition and find this comment abhorrent)

But did they not make the distinction between types of diabetes, in the rest of the documentary?

 

[Lisa65]

I think it is the reverse - as soon as I got my glucose levels down to more normal levels I lost weight without effort, no reduced portions or fewer calories or even increased exercise. One day I stood up and my clothes fell down around my ankles - luckily in private.

Same here, having high blood sugar made me ravenously hungry, once I started metformin and cut carbs I was able to drop from almost 15 stone to under 10 stone with no effort, without that ravenous hunger I didn't want to overeat any more.
All that excess glucose swilling about in the blood increases insulin resistance, so we are in fact starving because it's not getting into the cells where it's needed, and either gets peed out or turned into fat, which guess what, increases insulin resistance even more!
Of course I'd tried losing weight, but the conventional advice of reducing fat and eating whole grains, fruit etc didn't work for me. It made me feel worse (of course now I know why, but I didn't then)
I think it's overly simplistic to say it's a lifestyle disease. Of course we have to modify our lifestyle after diagnosis, but without knowledge of IR and how type 2 diabetes can develop in people who are genetically prone to it, how are people supposed to know?

 

[JITR]

I have totally failed to log in to Channel 5 to watch that programme. It seems likely the Doctor meant dietary T2 in the context of the discussion.

What is Diabetes UK's guidance on referring to diabetes in the public domain to avoid giving any possible offence where none is intended?

I blame myself 100% for my dietary T2D but the CQC blamed the GPs, and put them into special measures for failing to detect diseases like diabetes (Type 2) and kidney problems.

 

[JITR]

The 'doctor' who said 'Diabetes is a lifestyle disease' is Gavin Sandercock. professor of sports medicine at Essex University.

His area of expertise is in evaluation design and monitoring, data synthesis and research on existing large data sets.

His comments about a BMI of 27 being the median (?) point in the distribution curve of the metabolically healthy (normal, overweight, obese) perhaps stems from this study Characterization of the Metabolically Healthy Phenotype in Overweightand Obese British Men / Preventive Medicine, 94. pp. 7-11. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.11.001
Men with diabetes mellitus were excluded from the cohort.

 

[harbottle]

It's disgraceful that this nonsense is still being peddle. We don't get T2 from being fat, if anything it's the other way round! Before being diagnosed back in 2010 I had put a lot of weight on, but that's because I felt ravenous no matter how much I ate.
T2 is hard enough to manage as it is, without this sort of prejudice, assuming we are all obese and lazy and brought it on ourselves 😡

Here are the risk factors for developing T2D:

Risk factors | Background information | Diabetes - type 2 | CKS | NICE

Risk factors, Background information, Diabetes - type 2, CKS

cks.nice.org.uk

• People who are overweight or obese (especially with central obesity) and/or have inactive lifestyles are at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes, as overeating and inactivity can exacerbate insulin resistance. Obesity accounts for 80–85% of the overall risk for developing type 2 diabetes [Diabetes UK, 2019a]. See the CKS topic on Obesity for more information.

 

[Anna DUK]

What is Diabetes UK's guidance on referring to diabetes in the public domain to avoid giving any possible offence where none is intended?

Here is our guidance to support people who report on diabetes in the media:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/resources-s3/2018-08/A guide to reporting diabetes news_Diabetes UK_2018_1127.pdf

(Although produced some time ago, the information is still relevant).

Sadly, if producers don't get in touch with us to ask for support, it's unlikely they'd come across this document. Sounds like on this occasion they didn't do their research/homework and left it to what the 'doctor' knows.

 

[JITR]

Here is our guidance to support people who report on diabetes in the media:
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/resources-s3/2018-08/A guide to reporting diabetes news_Diabetes UK_2018_1127.pdf
(Although produced some time ago, the information is still relevant).
... Sounds like on this occasion they didn't do their research/homework and left it to what the 'doctor' knows.

Thank you @Anna DUK.

I had a proposal about the Diabetes 'Style Guide' in mind when I asked the question. The messaging in the 2018 guidance tends to support it. Please let me compose my thoughts and come back to you. Next weekend maybe.

About the Channel 5 programme itself. Whatever its shortcomings may be, I'd say it provides a great opportunity for Diabetes UK to advance the public debate about the Type 2 epidemic. Example, the statement that most people living with obesity want rid of it. That brings us round to the question of stigma and people giving offence entirely unintentionally.

 

[CliffH]

Thank you @Anna DUK.

I had a proposal about the Diabetes 'Style Guide' in mind when I asked the question. The messaging in the 2018 guidance tends to support it. Please let me compose my thoughts and come back to you. Next weekend maybe.

About the Channel 5 programme itself. Whatever its shortcomings may be, I'd say it provides a great opportunity for Diabetes UK to advance the public debate about the Type 2 epidemic. Example, the statement that most people living with obesity want rid of it. That brings us round to the question of stigma and people giving offence entirely unintentionally.

Great point: would it be worth Diabetes UK issuing a press release (ideally today) to respond to the programme? I don't know how proactive Diabetes UK is or wants to be in terms of that type of thing but I've found that responding quickly to TV/radio programmes can be a good way of raising awareness for other charities with which I've worked - and can encourage journalists to make contact in the future, before the programme's broadcast.

 

[Anna DUK]

I can certainly reach out to our Press team about this programme specifically to address what's been aired and what the response is. 🙂

 

[JITR]

@Anna DUK
I agree with Cliff, depending on the message. However diabetes T2 was only a minor part of an introductory episode and the details of forthcoming episodes have not been published afaik. So I would suggest your Press team contact Channel 5 and or the production company first to explore the possibilities. Perhaps Dr David Unwin too, as he appeared on Episode 1 and may be appearing again in a subsequent episode. Also Nicola Guess at Oxford. I believe she is the project manager for the NewDawn project which is highly relevant here. Her opinion will certainly be worth having, a smart lady as an American might say. As I recall the sustainability of the current NHS pathway to remission programme was called into question directly or by implication.

 

[JITR]

P.S. I forgot to mention Prof. Roy Taylor. Obesity was one of the main themes. He covers that epidemic as well as T2D in his book, Life without diabetes T2 (profits to Diabetes UK). His opinion should be heard too.

A conversation between between the people I have mentioned and Prof. Gavin Sanderbrook (see quote below) would be interesting.

The 'doctor' who said 'Diabetes is a lifestyle disease' is Gavin Sandercock. professor of sports medicine at Essex University.

His area of expertise is in evaluation design and monitoring, data synthesis and research on existing large data sets.

His comments about a BMI of 27 being the median (?) point in the distribution curve of the metabolically healthy (normal, overweight, obese) perhaps stems from this study Characterization of the Metabolically Healthy Phenotype in Overweightand Obese British Men / Preventive Medicine, 94. pp. 7-11. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.11.001
Men with diabetes mellitus were excluded from the cohort.

 

[JITR]

Here is our guidance to support people who report on diabetes in the media:
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/resources-s3/2018-08/A guide to reporting diabetes news_Diabetes UK_2018_1127.pdf

@Anna DUK
Glancing through the guidance, I noticed that "diabetes" appears as single word throughout the document including the front cover and contents list.

The key message "It’s important to be clear which type of diabetes is being referred to in a story" is on page 9.

There is also a precursor tip on page 7, "Be clear on the type of diabetes. Always distinguish between the two main types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2.The single biggest complaint from our members is that the media doesn’t do this enough".

Simpler for everyone to always say "Type 1 Diabetes" or "Type 2 Diabetes"?

Unless they mean all types of diabetes ("Diabetes") or some other type (such as "Type 2 Diabetes induced by drugs" or "Monogenetic Diabetes").

Just an immediate thought.