As a parent of a child living with Type 1 diabetes and a self proclaimed Type 1 crusader I find it very annoying that mass media will not distinguish between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in their stories. The addition of 4 extra letters and 1 number, TYPE2, would save me from the hassle of having to educate magazines and newspapers one publication at a time.
The latest offender is Redbook magazine. They have an article in their October 2009 issue “How Healthy is Your Family Tree?” that talks about genetic diseases that can be caught before they turn serious if you only find out about them based on your family history.
Of course this article mentions diabetes. While I appreciate that they are getting the word out there for all the people with the ‘other’ diabetes, I am angry that they will not differentiate between Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 diabetes IS NOT PREVENTABLE!! You can write article after article after article talking about how to prevent diabetes as long as you make note that you are only talking about Type 2.
Let me repeat that in case anyone from Redbook is reading, TYPE 1 DIABETES IS NOT PREVENTABLE!!!!
The following is the letter that I submitted to the letter to the editor of Redbook. Like I’ve said before, Type 1 crusader is a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
Dear Ms. Morrison,
As a mom of a child living with Type 1 diabetes I was saddened to see that Redbook made no differentiation between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in the article “How Healthy Is Your Family Tree?” While I agree with all of your points regarding diabetes, they are really referring to the more prevalent form , Type 2 diabetes, and a distinction really should have been made.
For my son and all the other people living with Type 1 diabetes it is an insult to claim that “more than 40,000 men showed that those who ate more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and chicken had a lower risk of diabetes that those who ate more traditional Western meat-and-potatoes diet,” without distinguishing the fact that any study of this nature can only be referring to Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease which is not brought on by food intake, exercise or lack thereof, stress, or any other self induced cause.
Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are very different diseases from their causes to their care. While I do not expect Redbook to write an entire article on living with Type 1 diabetes, I do expect at the very least, that when you take on the task of educating the masses that you do so in a responsible way. The responsible way would have been to make note that the article was about Type 2 diabetes thereby doing your small part in stopping the myths and misconceptions that plague my son regarding his type of diabetes, Type 1.
Thank you for your time.
On the bottom of every email that I send out is this website address. What are the odds that someone will click on my link and read this site? Maybe, just maybe, one more person will be educated about what my son and all the other people that live with Type 1 go through every day.
I can dream, can’t I?