Almost thirty million Americans have diabetes; one in four of us doesn’t yet know it. I’m not in that group. In the interests of full disclosure, I should tell you I have Type 2 diabetes. I control it with reasonable effectiveness through diet, exercise, and medication. Actually, with lots of medication that I will take every day for the rest of my life for as long as I continue to like typing “for the rest of my life.”
Type 2 diabetes or adult onset, as it's sometimes called, is often seen as akin to a self-inflicted wound. Lifestyle choices, in what to eat and drink and how much care I take of myself have a great deal to do with my diabetes. Your diabetes or that of someone you know and love could be very different in many aspects but have as a sad similarity a frightening number of serious illnesses and medical conditions that it helps exacerbate. In my case, everything from impaired healing after surgery to retinopathy.
There’s no need to feel sorry for me as I do a good job of that all by myself and I’m very competitive. I'm a cautionary tale. If you wanted to spare a thought for those with Type 1 diabetes, that, I think, would be more than appropriate and probably much appreciated.
A donation to help with research even more especially, though truth to tell with the escalating rates of diabetes, research seems to be bailing out the ocean with a teaspoon. Actually all the annual donations don’t even come close to offsetting the one billion dollars the American Beverage Association spends on advertising to encourage the consumption of their most popular product, sugary soda.
Some have pointed out the chances of finding your name on the side of an insulin vial pale in comparison to that of a can of the real thing. Maybe it’s time to change the tune.
-bill kenny
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