The Worst Kind of Diabetes is

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You Have a Job to do.

Diabetes Awareness month is November.

We’re not going to wait. Too many are getting it wrong now, today. Do something today that could have an impact on Diabetes Awareness Month for 2012. Ready?

The worst form of diabetes…….is getting it wrong. Find a newspaper in your area and either email or send a letter. Here is the copy of my actual letter that I sent to Mr. Fred Groser, Publisher of Newsday, here on Long Island; and I also sent to the Vice President of Editorial Services for Cablevsion—it took me 7 minutes and 37 seconds to do both. If needed, take mine and tweak/edit as needed……but do it.

Dear Mr. Groser,
My name is Tom Karlya and I am an online writer about diabetes (www.diabetesdad.org and www.dlife.com/diabetsdad), active in many diabetes causes, and probably most importantly; I am a father to two children who live with Type 1 Diabetes everyday.

As I’m sure you know, November is Diabetes Awareness month and I, along with thousands of people across the nation who are touched by this insidious disease, are writing to our local media to ask that should you run any stories about diabetes; PLEASE make sure you ‘get it’ right.

When referring to Type 2 Diabetes designate it as such; and the same with Type 1 Diabetes, or Gestational Diabetes, or to whichever form of diabetes you are referring. There is so much misunderstanding and confusion about diabetes, help us educate the public to understand fully by being specific where needed.

Thank you for your time. You can contact me directly or feel free to reach out to the Diabetes Advocates at info@diabetesadvocates.org; their website is www.diabetesadvocates.org; they will be glad to answer any questions you have about the different forms of diabetes. Thank you for your support during diabetes awareness month.

Regards,

–Tom

Imagine if just 1000 people did this to two forms of media across the country this week getting ready for Diabetes Awareness month. You can even cut and paste what I have given and tweak it.

November is Diabetes Awareness Month and today …is…..is…..um……’help the media get it right in November’ day……..so let’s go.

If we don’t try to correct the problem, we cannot complain when they get it wrong. Should you do it, send me a response to let me know the name of the newspaper and in what city and state. This is an easy one, but one that can surely have an impact….let’s do it together. ‘Don’t do nothing’…….and do it today.

I am a Diabetesdad

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I sent a plea to the local NBC station in DC.

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This is great. I've actually done the same thing quite a few times. Sometimes, I'll just do a Google News search for "Diabetes" and see what comes up. Quite often, I find articles that attribute "diabetes" to being overweight or eating a poor diet. Most of these articles fail to note that there are many different forms of diabetes, some of which have nothing to do with diet and exercise.

I am finding the ignorant comments these days more and more intolerable. I hate it when people say things like, "But how can you have diabetes? You're so thin and in shape!" or the "If you just follow the paleo/cinnamon/atkins diet, you won't need insulin anymore. That's what my Aunt Trudy did." Ugh.

And who do I blame? The media. They constantly report these sensationalistic headlines about how "diabetes" is killing so many people simply because people are overweight and not exercising. They leave out the facts - the fact that there are many different types of diabetes and researchers are still striving to understand these various forms of the condition.