this morning

[Adrienne]

he he he very true Katie.

I think though that she didn't mean alcoholics would become diabetic. I think she was saying that in this day and age alcoholics are a problem for the country and that in the years to come it won't be alcoholics anymore, it will be diabetics........

I don't agree with that however. But if the NHS don't change this stupid lottery postcode and start putting people in pumps that need to be or do lots more carb counting courses then she may be right but it will be the NHS fault, not ours.

 

[Vanessa]

Perhaps I'm not so appalled by Lesley Garrett's comments as she does not appear as an expert or an authoritative voice? I don't have the same expectations of her getting things right as I do of docs on the box or formal news reports - for me, the context seems relevant - I don't think 4 female "celebrities" gossiping has the same impact

 

[redrose]

I Cant stand fake fern Brittain ever since she "lied" about her so called healthy eating weight loss.

She is just one of the many thousands of people who have no idea what Diabetes really is.

I am type two and Im gettig sick and tired of the usual type 2 is caused by being over weight. I think research needs to be done into why some over weight people are over weight. What makes them eat more calories than the body needs. I am over weight but I am not the usual over weight couch potatoe who eats unhealthy fried foods all the times and never exercises. Im the opposite. In fact last year I took part in thr race for life event to raise money for cancer research. I have always been into keep fit and cant stand fried foods. My weight increased suddenly when I was four years old and docs didnt know why. Dieticians always thought mum was lying about the foods I ate cause it wsnt the usual cakes, sweets and fatty foods. I ate the same foods as the rest of the family but it was only me qith a weight problem.

Can anyone answer this question for me.....
When our blood samples are tested, is a test carried out to see if type2's produce any insulin or is it just assumed that because we are fat our insulin that is produced just cant cope with the amount of food we supposedly eat?

Debbs

 

[HelenM]

When questioned it transpired that they all used to be on tablets and were all only diagnosed recently rather than childhood and they all started off as type 2 !!!!!!!!! It was their GP's ( all different GPs) who had told each and every one that now they were on insulin injections they were miraculously type 1.

It does might depend upon when they were diagnosed as to what they were told , from 1980-1997 the official classification was IDDM or Type 1 or NIDDM or type 2. These classifications were based on treatment not aetiology. So their doctors might not have got it wrong at the time.

Also some of your group may well have had type 1. Age of diagnosis is not necessarily a good indicator. There are, many accounts of older people being initially prescribed tablets, just because of their age. Sometimes they have to endure the implications that they are uncompliant and get sicker and sicker until they end up with DKA. There are others that are put unto insulin but retain the type 2 label since many GPS are unaware that statistically, there are more people that develop type 1 after 25 than before. Ten percent of those diagnosed with type 2 probably have LADA. (and are therefore type 1a, autoimmune)
Personally, I was lucky, being in France they sent me to hospital and tested for everything under the sun, but I still often have to explain to medical professionals,: yes, it is type 1 and no, I didn't get it until I was 54.

When our blood samples are tested, is a test carried out to see if type2's produce any insulin

A test can be done to see how much insulin you are producing, it is called a C peptide test.

 

[bev]

Hi Debbs,

I do understand why you feel the way you do - it must be hard being judged all the time when you say your type 2 diabetic?
I do think that you can have overweight healthy and fit people - just as much as you can have a skinny unfit person.
Where you ever tested for thyroid problems? Maybe you were just pre-disposed to being a larger build than the rest of your family.Bev

 

[katie]

he he he very true Katie.

I think though that she didn't mean alcoholics would become diabetic. I think she was saying that in this day and age alcoholics are a problem for the country and that in the years to come it won't be alcoholics anymore, it will be diabetics........

They weren't talking about diabetes. They were talking about alcohol problems and she randomly dropped in the word diabetes.

 

[Adrienne]

Oh dear, that's not good then is it. I wonder what Lesley Garrett knows about alcoholics and diabetes!!!

 

[Northerner]

Oh dear, that's not good then is it. I wonder what Lesley Garrett knows about alcoholics and diabetes!!!

I don't know, but I bet I could write it on the back of a postage stamp!

There may be some tenuous connection between excessive alcohol consumption and poor blood sugar control (not diabetes). I read ages ago, I'm not sure where now, that because the pancreas and liver are having to work so hard and yo-yo ing with insulin and glucagon that this can put significant strain on both organs. Perhaps I read it in Lesley Garrett's Phd thesis on the topic...

 

[katie]

Now they are talking about how grumpiness causes strokes, heart attacks and diabetes I guess it's been in the media today or something.

 

[Adrienne]

Run that by me again........

Grumpiness causes diabetes. Which one do they mean here, er lets pick one or two : type 1 perhaps, type 2, gestational maybe or even MODY.

So are they saying that everyone has to be happy all the time......

This is getting ridiculous isn't it.

 

[Copepod]

Surely pregnancy has something to do with causing gestational diabetes?!?

To make a more general point, there is an epidemiological term "association", which means 2 features are often found together, but not necessarily that one causes the other. As a non-health example, the numbers of churches and pubs in towns is generally related - but both are actually caused by the size of population, not that churches cause pubs or pubs cause churches.

 

[Adrienne]

You are right. Therefore according to Lesley Garratt for every alcoholic there is a diabetic

 

[tracey w]

I know what you mean bev, but I just think it's as easy to say diabetes is too much glucose in the blood - they explained well about lack of insulin/insulin resistance - and that glucose comes from digested carbohydrate, like bread, rice etc. as well as sugar. Then joe public wouldn't think that you 'get it' from eating too much sugar, and it can be avoided by cutting out sugar.

sorry to be negative here. but i think joe public dont really listen and take it in too much. after all its not about them so they are not that concerned/interested. i know this is how i used to be.

I was in the staff canteen today eating a biscuit and my manager was looking at me a bit strange, and asked " i thought you couldnt have sugar being diabetic" and what seemed like the trillionth time i explained bla bla bla. well it might as well be bla bla bla as im sure i will get questioned again in the not too distant future. Not complaining, just trying to remember my blase attitude to conditions before diagnosis

dont get me wrong peoples attitudes and lack of understanding can be sooo frustrating but its not their fault.

 

[tracey w]

Phil's daughter has diabetes, so i'm sure they dont mean to give inaccurate info.

i dont know about this. he did however say, and i have heard him say it before also that both his mother and brother are type 1

 

[redrose]

HI Bev yes ive been tested a couple of years ago and my thyroid is fine. My diabetes was only picked up about 8 years ago and it was by chance that it was when I moved to scotland and was enrolling at a new docs surgery. My gp says I could have had it since being at school. They will never know when it started which is why I wonder if I ever was a type 1 and not type 2 just because Im big.

Debbs