I realized that the reason people are so ignorant about the differences between type 1 and type 2 is because how meters are marketed. Look at the latest commercials, Nick Jonas talking about his Bayer meter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8rxneqbj6Y he does not mention type 1 at all and so people assume that he is type 2 just because that's what their fat (my apologizes) mother is. If one advertisement would come out and say type 1 there would be those people who search for "what is type 1?" on the internet and there would be less ignorance already. But because companies group us together to market their products the ignorance spreads. Personally I don't like being grouped with type 2s but that's just me.
to sum up above:
It's not the ignorant people's fault, it is the companies who market us together's faults.
Hi Greg.it's just so they can market to both. I live with a type1 and a type 2-so there are alot of meters around here. I wish the name of type1 was changed-then the mix up might go away.
[quote user="meme"]
Hi Greg.it's just so they can market to both. I live with a type1 and a type 2-so there are alot of meters around here. I wish the name of type1 was changed-then the mix up might go away.
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I know! I think I posted about this already, but let's come up w/ a new name for T1, so people are less confused! Who do we contact about this?? I think it would especially help kids in school when their peers didn't compare them to Grandma. (: (How about something like Jonas Brothers Endocrine Disease (J-BED) -- Kidding, kidding!)
This is something that has always REALLY bothered me. I met another T1 once and I asked him which type he had and he said, "I have the real kind" which I thought was kind of funny... Anyway my thought is that we should call T1, Autoimmune Diabetes and T2, Metabolic Diabetes, just to make it perfectly clear.
my mom has wanted the name changed since the moment she first had to tell someone her daughter had type 1 diabetes..15years ago. she's even brought it up at meetings for the ambassador program through the canadian diabetes association. they even said it wasn't going to happen!
not wanting to bust bubbles..but it's very unlikely its gonna happen..and if it does, it won't be in our lifetimes..as much as we want it to. even if they change it to what Kate suggested..people are still gonna call it T1 and T2 for short...unless we come up with a short term for them!
we're all best off to go "i have the real kind" when people ask haha
i blame the media more than i blame the companies. they simply supply the mediciation..the media supplies the coverage of new technology and all of that to the masses.
t2 can be caused by all sorts of reasons--not just weight. there are lots of otherwise healthy people who develop t2. it has developed a negative association to obesity because the 2 commonly occur together. if you think about it, it's unfair to the t2s everyone thinks you have to be old and overweight to develop it. there are young people with t2, thin people with t2, active people with t2. just within this thread, we've proved our own ignorance by stating you have to be a "grandma" or "fat" to develop it. NOT TRUE!
just sayin'... :o)
thanks c,my husband and his brother both got type2 in their early thirties. They were both very active,not overweight at all,Their mom grew her own garden and raused her children to eat healthy,My husband has been hurt by those saying he brought this on himself. He is a thin as a rail.
Good point "C" - every disease has it false stereotypes. I am glad you posted that. Thank you.
not a problem. there are t2s on juvenation as well. they would probably be offended by our comments. it's always important to consider the facts before making a blanket statement about something.
[quote user="C"]
not a problem. there are t2s on juvenation as well. they would probably be offended by our comments. it's always important to consider the facts before making a blanket statement about something.
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Sorry, sorry! I meant that "fat" and "old" are the stereotypes of T2. That we didn't want to be lumped in w/ those stereotypes (again, always in the media). I should have made myself clearer. *apologies!!!*
C - you are right that there are many T2's who are healthy and active and all that. They, like us didn't have a choice, they were going to get it no matter what. I think what people were trying to express is frustration. We see news stories all the time about T2s being overweight, commercials for lap band surgeries saying 'we can cure diabetes', and more and more children being diagnosed with T2. We hear the negative stereotypes right or wrong. The general public hears these things and applies them to us T1s. I think a lot of us are tired of explaining, 'no, what I have is different than your grandma' (or your uncle, father on down the line) While we shouldn't lump all T2's in one group, I think sometimes the anger and frustration we have with having to explain ourselves and saying 'no we can't be cured with a new diet' (as an example) overcomes us and we do lump them all in. It isn't right but I'd also like to see more T2's fighting that battle so we don't have to. I would like to see some that are vocal and say 'we didn't have a choice either' and push the other T2's that maybe could avoid having the disease. If they are out there, I'll say I'm sorry now, but I haven't seen anything to fight their stereotypes. I know I have a tendency to throw them all in one basket because I get thrown in that same basket with them - two wrongs don't make a right. I'd just like some more help from their side, maybe I'd lighten up a bit.
just my 2 cents.....
[quote user="Doug D"]
C - you are right that there are many T2's who are healthy and active and all that. They, like us didn't have a choice, they were going to get it no matter what. I think what people were trying to express is frustration. We see news stories all the time about T2s being overweight, commercials for lap band surgeries saying 'we can cure diabetes', and more and more children being diagnosed with T2. We hear the negative stereotypes right or wrong. The general public hears these things and applies them to us T1s. I think a lot of us are tired of explaining, 'no, what I have is different than your grandma' (or your uncle, father on down the line) While we shouldn't lump all T2's in one group, I think sometimes the anger and frustration we have with having to explain ourselves and saying 'no we can't be cured with a new diet' (as an example) overcomes us and we do lump them all in. It isn't right but I'd also like to see more T2's fighting that battle so we don't have to. I would like to see some that are vocal and say 'we didn't have a choice either' and push the other T2's that maybe could avoid having the disease. If they are out there, I'll say I'm sorry now, but I haven't seen anything to fight their stereotypes. I know I have a tendency to throw them all in one basket because I get thrown in that same basket with them - two wrongs don't make a right. I'd just like some more help from their side, maybe I'd lighten up a bit.
just my 2 cents.....
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Wow. Very well said Doug. I have to agree. One small difference; I have a former T2 online buddy, who is also a vegan. I say former because he totally changed his life when he got the dx. After being vegan for less than a year his A1c was below 5, and has never went above 5 since.
I am sorry if I offend; It is just my belief that T2's are coddled too much, the majority of them could reverse a lot of their problems if they weren't. I do understand that T2 does have environmental, and hereditary factors too, however the main issue is laziness; whether it be too lazy to eat right, too lazy to exercise, too lazy to go to the doctor, too lazy to actually notice what the ingredients are in your food, and how they effect your body. I also realize that there are lazy T1's, and we know that if they stay lazy for long, they do not last long.
However every time you turn on radio or television T2's are now being told they can now take insulin, or buy this great new product. All this just validates the "bad" T2 behavior, makes more money for the companies selling it, and keeps the focus off us. Just my opinion :)
There was recently a study done about how those in the medical profession (this would also apply to the general population too) view overweight individuals. it was astonishing. being overweight does NOT equate to being lazy. just like being a diabetic does NOT equate to eating too much sugar.
next to homosexuals, overweight/obese individuals are one of the highest groups discriminated against. do you honestly think they like being overweight? they like being ridiculed and discriminated against. if it was truly as simple as "losing some weight," don't you think they would do it?
working in the health care field, especially in nutrition, i can tell you exercise, weight loss, and healthy eating are not simple. being overweight or obese is not purely laziness. someone who just has a goal of 5 lbs finds it is not easy to lose weight and maintain it. most individuals who lose weight, will gain it back plus more within 5 years. it's not easy to do! when you add emotional distress on top of that, weight management is a tough issue.
i work with overweight individuals. i can tell you from a first hand POV, they are not lazy. nor do they want to be heavy. once again, you can't make a blanket statement saying if you're heavy, you're lazy. it's unfair and not based on fact whatsoever.
i dont think the name diabetes will ever be changed because eeach part of the word has a medical meaning. each part of the word represents a medical term
[quote user="C"]
There was recently a study done about how those in the medical profession (this would also apply to the general population too) view overweight individuals. it was astonishing. being overweight does NOT equate to being lazy. just like being a diabetic does NOT equate to eating too much sugar.
next to homosexuals, overweight/obese individuals are one of the highest groups discriminated against. do you honestly think they like being overweight? they like being ridiculed and discriminated against. if it was truly as simple as "losing some weight," don't you think they would do it?
working in the health care field, especially in nutrition, i can tell you exercise, weight loss, and healthy eating are not simple. being overweight or obese is not purely laziness. someone who just has a goal of 5 lbs finds it is not easy to lose weight and maintain it. most individuals who lose weight, will gain it back plus more within 5 years. it's not easy to do! when you add emotional distress on top of that, weight management is a tough issue.
i work with overweight individuals. i can tell you from a first hand POV, they are not lazy. nor do they want to be heavy. once again, you can't make a blanket statement saying if you're heavy, you're lazy. it's unfair and not based on fact whatsoever.
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I agree with you that fat does not mean lazy, and lazy does not mean fat.
You can be fat and healthy, you can be thin and unhealthy.
I think you do not understand the way in which the word lazy is being used.
Lazy as in idle, slow to move, or change the situation.
Thank you for clarifying; I understood what you were saying. I think we just have differing viewpoints. It makes life more interesting. :o)
Well if you can't group people how do you categorizes them? I know for a fact that I'm type 1 and I'm put into this group with all the other type 1s. Maybe if to solve all our disagreements we should have more than 1 type of type 2 diabetics, just as there are gestational diabetics and juvenile diabetics that get grouped together into the same type 1 category.
C, I see where you're coming from but I disagree because I don't want to be grouped with type 2 diabetics because we are two different types. We get confused for the kind that people BELIEVE to be associated with being overweight. (doesnt mean they are overweight, if they aren't overweight they are a casualty of stereotypes as well)
[quote user="C"]
next to homosexuals, overweight/obese individuals are one of the highest groups discriminated against. do you honestly think they like being overweight? they like being ridiculed and discriminated against. if it was truly as simple as "losing some weight," don't you think they would do it?
working in the health care field, especially in nutrition, i can tell you exercise, weight loss, and healthy eating are not simple. being overweight or obese is not purely laziness. someone who just has a goal of 5 lbs finds it is not easy to lose weight and maintain it. most individuals who lose weight, will gain it back plus more within 5 years. it's not easy to do! when you add emotional distress on top of that, weight management is a tough issue.
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I'm sure most of the type 1s here will agree with me that having type 1 is emotionally stressful, loosing weight and keeping it off is also stressful but the difference is that WE can't get rid of our diabetes no matter how much time and effort we put into it. Yes there are some type 2 people who still have to take pills even when they're weight is fine but that is entirely different compared to giving shots or wearing a pump for the rest of your life.
I'm sure if you asked any type 1 diabetic here if they were given an opportunity to have their diabetes magically disappear but they would have to be on a strict diet, loose 10-20lbs and keep it off, they would do it in a heart beat.
(I acknowledge that there are people with thyroid problems that make it almost impossible to loose weight but we aren't talking about those people, we are talking about the average type 1 and the average type 2)
it's fine to group people. type 1 and type 2 are generally accepted groupings. i was saying you can't stereotype by saying all type 2s are fat and/or lazy. stereotyping is unfair. grouping based on commonalities is okay.
commonalities are okay...well then i should be able to say that most type 2s could loose some weight to combat their type 2 diabetes.