Ever Want To Punch a...?

Community Share Your Stories
1

This was originally posted to my blog, Diabetes Odyssey.

Every morning I have a certain routine, a habit of things I tend to do as I ‘wake up’ and get moving for the day. One of these habits is to, usually, scan through certain websites and read a lot of blogs and follow a lot of tags and articles categorized under “diabetes”.

Lately I have found myself becoming more and more annoyed and frustrated with the number of blog posts, articles, ads, and the such that are full of lies, half truths, pseudo science, etc… Yes, these things have been around forever, but it just seems that as of late they have been exploding again.

“You can reverse your diabetes in 60 days.” Um, no, you can’t reverse your diabetes, ever. You can control it, but you’ll never be cured.

“This diet is the best for diabetics!” I view this one as just a product push because every diabetic is different and there are a million ways to eat based on health needs and lifestyle (activity level, etc.) and type of diabetes, that are going to impact your dietary needs and what you are and aren’t able to handle.

“Studies find … raises risk for diabetes.” or “Study finds … lowers risk for diabetes.” Most of the time these are outright lies, pseudoscience, or unfinished studies.

“Diabetes cured in lab study of new drug/treatment.” Just because some mice were cured doesn’t mean humans will be. Save the news for the human trials, will ya?

“This supplement/meal replacer/vitamin/mineral will cure/reverse/control your diabetes.” Most likely not. Most likely its a scam, lie, etc. Most likely it’s just another way to play on your heartstrings and get your money from false hope.

There are so many out there. So many lies, so much misinformation.

I don’t know how many personal blog posts I’ve read where a person has been recently diagnosed with some type of diabetes and the way they explain diabetes in their blog is so misinformed my heart just breaks for them. I want to comment on their post or send them a private message and help them to straighten it all out, but I often feel that would be rude. How do I approach this issue? Well, usually I just start by reaching out in a friendly, “I’ve been through this for many years, let me know if I can help.” Kind of way.

2 Likes
2

There’s a theory in education that no one learns anything until s/he is ready. I think that applies to your question, too. At a minimum you can always respond as you write, by saying that you share their situation. Unless they clearly indicate an openness to their worldview of diabetes then I think unsolicited advice will simply irritate both parties.

If this discussion takes place with someone that you have more regular contact with, like a co-worker, then you can use non-threatening language that hints at another view of diabetes. Over time this may open the door to real communication.

I share your distaste of the term “reverse diabetes.”

3 Likes