So… I feel one of the reasons why so many Type 2s are terrified of insulin therapy is because of (some) medical professionals, not (just) because of online interactions. Many family doctors use it (almost certainly unintentionally) as a threat: “If you don’t lose weight… if you don’t get your BG under control… if you don’t ____; then you’ll have to go on insulin.”
I mean, I’m early-stage LADA, and my doctors are trying to convince me to stay off of insulin as long as possible. They’re worried about all the classics: weight gain; hypos; compliance; etc. As far as I can tell, in many places (not all) in the US, insulin is seen as the “treatment of last resort” for diabetics, whatever type they may be. With classic childhood Type 1, doctors see no option (and family doctors almost never are involved anyways other than referring someone to the ER or an endocrinologist), so it’s not an issue. But…for any kind of adult-onset diabetes, T2, T1, MODY, etc., where we here would assume insulin therapy is indicated, many (especially family) doctors seem to want to try everything else first: diet and exercise; orals; etc.
So again, I guess I suspect that the “T2 fear of insulin” has more factors to it (at least in the US) than just online interactions. Doctors, family members (T2 is highly genetically correlated), social norms and stereotypes equating insulin with “failure” and T2 with obesity, etc.
Type 2 question: to insulin or not to insulin.
I found this article, giving guidelines to help type 2 decide to start insulin. The article title:
“Initiating Insulin in the Type 2 Diabetes Patient”
Here’s the source:
Genetically modified insulin. Yes, the ones we are injecting into our bodies. Here’s a history on the fierce political battle to stop the availability of GMO insulin to diabetics.
Imagine, if we are forced to use animal insulin???
Here’s the article source:
We have always searched for ways to make this site more Type 2 friendly without changing the meaning of this site to the insulin dependent diabetic.
This is a new idea to me, I never considered that talk of insulin was scaring away Type 2s, as a type 2 that was prescribed insulin I was drawn to this site because of the many years of experience using insulin that I found here.
Even back in the Usenet days, we had misc.health.diabetes, which the T2’s were unsatisfied with because there were so many T1’s, so the T2’s started alt.support.diabetes, which then imploded the whole discussion scene because us T1’s showed up there.
Funny, I used to frequent the Usenet boards quite a lot back in the old command line days, but it never occurred to me to seek out discussions with other T1s. Might have saved me a lot of craziness if I had. Ah well…
To be fair misc.health.diabetes came along pretty late (1993) in the history of Usenet and alt.support.diabetes even later. This was the era of Usenet SPAM for sure. But was also the era of Carl Lydick and his simply wonderful, um, contributions!
It’s a paradox that T1Ds are over-represented in any mixed diabetes community. While we only represent about 10% of all diabetics, we are often the clear majority in communities like TuD. I think the unfortunate social reality of blaming and shaming people with T2D has led to people with T2D to hide their disease and not get the support they need. It is not their fault!
That may be part of it, but I think most T2s don’t get the feedback in same way as T1. T1s typically test BG more often and SEE the fluctuations. Also more at risk for complications.
Many T2s, like my mom, take oral meds, test only fasting (and not every day). Then see their doctor every 3-6 months or less. Doctor says you’re doing great, A1C is under 8. (And her generation is more likely to believe doctors are always right no matter what I suggest.)
My guess is that most people find the forums due to searching for help on diet, insulin dosing, pumps, and CGMS. That’s how I found TuD, searching for help on medtronic Sof-sensors, and how inaccurate they were. (Learned about ISIG from online sites, but never learned about it from medtronics, even though I called them many times.).
Ever get that look from your doctor when you start a sentence with. “I read on the internet…”
Actually my endo is very supportive of me using sites like this to get more fine-grained information about problems, gear, treatments etc., for which I’m very grateful.
Re your and @Terry4’s comments about the predominance of T1s on various diabetic sites: for T1s–and for T2s already on insulin–our lives revolve much more around managing our medication than managing our disease, and it’s a continuous challenge. I’ve had T1 for 35 years and still, in any given week I may have a dozen “Why the heck is it doing this and how do I make it stop???” questions of varying degrees of urgency, ranging from curiosity to panic. With T2 I think it’s more of a “punctuated equilibrium” situation, where once you get a regimen established it doesn’t have this aspect of continuous tweaking and fiddling. That situation just naturally generates a lot more activity on the T1 side on a site like this, especially when you add in all the complicated gear that goes with it nowadays and the multiple failure points that gear entails.
According to my endocrinologist my diabetes type 2 was caused by two factors:
I had inherited a specific gene that made me susceptible to getting diabetes type 2
After moving from Norway to Canada in 1990 I let my guard down, stopped jogging, ate at Macdonalds and other junk food joints and put on weight.
Nobody else in my immediate family in Norway had diabetes though they most likely had the same gene. But my paternal grandmother, the only one in my family who allowed herself to become obese, lost her eye sight due to diabetes before she died.
I have mostly managed my diabetes without medications and I have lost weight but it irks me every time people deny there is no connection between diabetes type 2 and obesity. Of course there is, that is about the insulin resistance that is created by layers of abdominal fat, something any endocrinologist knows and every doctor should know. The hardship that your metabolism goes through when having to process and transmit information through layers of fat is the key to diabetes type 2.
Many may hate me for having said this but as a retired journalist I am too used to speaking the truth to stop now.
