A reader writes:
Each time I read a post or piece that mentions “obesity and diabetes,” I send along an email in a desperate attempt to get people – many of them medical professionals = to stop using the blanket term “diabetes” with “obesity.” Why? Because my young daughter has Type 1 Diabetes, an autoimmune disease that affects millions of Americans and usually manifests in childhood (used to be called Juvenile Diabetes). Type 1 diabetes has nothing to do with obesity.
In fact, when most children are diagnosed, they are on their way to starvation, as their bodies no longer metabolize their food components. Because people so casually throw around the umbrella term “diabetes” and are so cruel to obese people, Type 1 diabetics get stigmatized by it. My child, who is very slight for her age group (as are many type 1 children), has to constantly answer questions like, “Did you eat too much sugar?” or weather comments like “Only fat people get diabetes.”
Type 1 children already feel different. They either have to wear insulin pumps day and night or take multiple shots each day. They have to take time out of class to prick their fingers multiple times a day to check their blood glucose. They live in fear of life-threatening high and low blood sugars. Their parents have to wake up during the night, often several times, to prick their fingers while they sleep. Is it too much to ask that journalists and medical professionals use the proper nomenclature?
No, it isn’t and we’ll be more careful in future.
The Dish 