Oprah to discuss diabetes on Thursday's show

On Thursday, Oprah and Dr. Oz will be discussing diabetes. The title of the show is "America's Silent Killer: Oprah and Dr. Oz Want to Save Your Life."

Dr. Oz is here with an emergency wake-up call. Then, Dr. Ian Smith, Bob Greene and chef Art Smith on how to stop America's silent killer: diabetes.

Now, I like Oprah, and I really respect Dr. Oz, but I am wary of what will be said on this episode. I hope they clearly communicate the differences between type 1 and type 2--like how type 1 is not preventable and how very stressful and difficult it is to manage. I am worried that it will simply be a discussion of obesity and will cause more confusion about type 1 diabetes.

Oprah does not have a great track record for accurately covering medical issues. Remember how she "blew out" her thyroid from working too hard?

Some articles to chew on:
"Oprah's Bad Medicine" Salon.com, May 15, 2009
"Live Your Best Life Ever!" Newsweek, May 30, 2009

God help us.

Just the title makes me worry “Americas Silent Killer” …I have the same concerns that you have and will watch it before and decide if I want my 15 yr. old w/diabetes to see it. Thank you for the heads up.

Dr. Oz had a show on Diabetes not too long ago… I watched it. I think he did say the difference some but mostly he checked peoples BGs and told them to go to get checked if it was bad.

On the flip side of this…I hope they don’t say loose the weight and it will all go away!!!
Dr. Oz if I remember right is all for this type of attitude.
As we know…weight causes many problems and loosing it helps considerably (for anyone - diabetic or not).
But it won’t completely end someone’s lack of sufficient insulin (due to resistance or lack of working beta cells).
It takes far to much damage to even become diabetic - weight loss won’t cure it.
Should be interesting…don’t give me anything I can throw at the TV…I spent good money for that flat screen! :slight_smile: HA

Yeah - this is bad. Dr. Oz consistently says that people with Type 2 diabetes can reverse it. Which is just plain wrong. Does he honestly think that a Type 2 who is controlling their blood sugar very well can expect to eat a dozen donuts and not spike? If he truly does think this (b/c hey - normalized blood sugars in Type 2s means they’ve “cured” themselves), then he needs to have his license yanked.

They will not be addressing Type 1. When I first learned of this show (about a month ago), I sent an email to the producers asking them to address a type 1-related situation. They weren’t interested.

I’m so over Oprah these days . . .

I can guarantee its all type 2, which is fine. More people have it. It seems the celebrity medical community doesn’t understand type 1 children grow into type 1 adults.

I’m almost interested in watching this train wreck

Shame on them. I’ve tried for years to get them to do shows on type 1, they are never interested. I guess if we grew new heads or something they’d put us on there. Wait, that might be Jerry Springer or Maury

I’m disappointed to hear that they won’t be covering type 1. I just know they’ll spend the whole show saying “diabetes, diabetes, diabetes” while I scream at the TV “TYPE 2!”

I used to worry that the two types of diabetes were confused by most people, but now I think the larger issue is the disappearance of type 1. It’s rarely discussed in the media; everything is always about type 2.

And whenever type 1 is discussed, it’s waaaaay off base. I saw Dr. Nancy Snyderman on the Today Show totally blow it when asked by a mom of a type 1 to explain why the two diseases are different (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/34038306#34038306).

When a doctor on TV says stuff like, “Your iPhone will someday be able to check your blood glucose through your skin, tell you what’s going on, and deliver your insulin,” it is pretty misleading. Most of us don’t even have CGMS or pumps yet, and I’m pretty sure Apple’s not getting into the pump/CGMS business–no matter how much we wish they would!

yup. I’ve written her show with ideas for type 1 related episodes for about 3 years now. They never respond. I even offered for her to have me on her show as an author and discuss my book- she likes that stuff. But, no dice.

Yeah, it’s frustrating… they always have wrong information about health on the tv, no matter what it is… While I don’t really believe Type 2 is entirely preventable, I don’t think potential Type 2’s will get a lot of useful benefit from whatever they say on the tv… Especially, if they just focus on it being a problem of ‘morbid obesity,’ and it makes regular people ignore the warnings, and keep walking around having this disease, without knowing it! This morning, on the Today show, they were coming down on some 40 year old woman because she has 27% body fat percentage, and she’s inactive… when a search on the web for the ‘healthy range’ of a woman her age, and activity level reveals that that’s normal! I just don’t get how they can allow people to get on tv, and misinform the world about things, or make them feel bad about how they are. It’s just so wrong.

That’s a good point Lizmari. A bunch of people who aren’t overweight will think that they CANNOT get diabetes.

Ugh. I better not watch this.

Well, Dr. Oz is one that falsely protrays Diabetes as something one can get rid of. I have actually seen him say this on his show. While type 2 is preventable or delayed if one catches it in the prediabetes range or before it is not curable by any stretch of the imagination. I am sure this will be an interesting show. The last time I watched Dr. Oz he told the person he was cured by a fasting blood test. I am sorry, but Dr. Oz is not a diabetes specialist.

“how to stop America’s silent killer, diabetes” Well let me think…mmmmmm…Find a cure for T1 or give me your working pancreas. That’s how diabetes can be stopped.

Sorry for being rude, but I get so tired of hearing this kind of nonsense. I know that any type of diabetes is devastating, but it seems to me that being in a minority of 10% or less with Type 1, we are being left out. That’s why everyone here, 1 or 2, needs to come together on all the issues.

I could say so much more, but I know that is just showing how self centered I can be.

Even giving you my working pancreas wouldn’t help much - might cure your diabetes but you’d still have to be on antirejection drugs all your life, AND you’d have to recover from major surgery. Plus I’d be left without a pancreas, which would kinda suck for me. What they REALLY need to do is a) find out how to turn off the autoimmune response (and there are a whole lot of diseases waiting for that discovery) and b) rescuscitate or replace the defunct beta cells.

I say we flood Oprah with emails about how the focus on T2 omits a fairly large population of T1s—people whose disease is not controllable with diet or exercise, and is BLOODY EXPENSIVE, and affects ever-younger children at an alarming rate… children who grow up into adults who can’t get any health insurance, and who are constantly having misguided advice thrown at them by people who got all their diabetes information from Dr. Oz and his ilk. Then maybe she can interview Manny!

Some people are just plain stupid Liz. Instead of feeling down about our conditions, maybe we should feel sorry for them being so ignorant, xo

It’s a shame if they don’t cover T1. Oprah is still in Chicago and we have Jay Cutler, she could easily pipe him in via feed or live. Not to mention the many celebrities (Nick Jonas, Brett Michaels, Mary Tyler Moore, various Olympians) that have T1. Ugh.

I haven’t watched Oprah in years, not sure I want to start again with this (:frowning:

Type 1 is more than just 10% of the population if you include all us LADAs otherwise called Type 1 adult onsets.

Zoe is correct, with LADA (which is Type 1 autoimmune disease) included in the stats, Type 1 is about 20% of the total diabetes population. Not rare at all.