Question:
cause of diabetes?How do you deal with the constant stream of supposedly
sympathetic support offered by friends and family when
they learn that you have diabetes, and proceed to lecture
you about how it's your own fault for eating like a pig
for all these years?
I'm 42, 5'9" and 180, and I'm supposed to be losing 39-40 lbs,
but I'm still thinner than most of them. And none of them exercise
at all - they just sit on their couches and watch TV. I don't go
to the gym, but I am a little bit active: I teach dance several
nights a week, and I also go out and do pretty aerobic dancing
each weekend. (Of course, now with this condition, I also go
for a walk every day for at least a mile or two.)
It just doesn't seem fair, and I have never once ever
criticized their utterly sedentary lifestyles!
Besides, don't they remember who I was eating all those dinners
with for the last 20 years?
Some of them also insist on giving me bizarre advice, such as not
to drink diet sodas because that is one of the causes of diabetes.
They never raise their voices when criticizing my condition;
they offer it by way of sympathetic explanation. But I can
hear the deadly accusations in their tone.
I'm a native American on my mother's side, and my father's mother
had diabetes, and my thin sister had diabetes, and so I tend to
think that I have a genetic predisposition for the disease.
But they can't accept that, and just harp on me about what a
fat pig I've been and now I'm getting the consequences.
I wish there were some way to get them to stop.
I feel bad enough already.
Answer:
Or how about: Test your friends. Then, no matter what reading you
get, put a shocked look on your face and tell them that their blood
glucose is extremely high, that they're obviously diabetic and will die
soon, very painfully. Be prepared to offer the name of a good attorney
to help them prepare their final wills.
Type 2 Diabetes is a genetic disease. T2 causes insulin resistance
which, in turn, causes weight gain and obesity. Obesity does not
cause diabetes. The proof of that are the million of fat people
(perhaps including your friends) who are not diabetic. Eating junk food
does not cause diabetes. If it did, everyone in this country would be
diabetic. Worse, there are many people who got plenty of exercise and
ate nothing but healthy food who got diabetes anyway. And lets not
forget that about 10% of T2's were thin and became diabetic anyway.
Some things, like plenty of exercise, can reduce your risk of diabetes,
but it can't prevent diabetes in everyone. Genetics are too strong.
It sounds like you are doing very well. The exercise you're getting
from your walking and dancing is excellent.
There's probably nothing you can do about your friends. They're
reveling in their ignorance and people like that generally don't want to
change. The only defense is a good offense. Discover what diseases
they have or run in their families. At the first mention of your
diabetes, shift the subject to their diseases. Then point out what
they're failing to do or what they did to cause their own infirmities.
Offer irrational advice. For example, if one friend has a bad back and
eats french fries, tell him that your doctor mentioned recent research
that proved some chemical in potatoes weakens nerves in the spine.
Then in your most sympathetic and helpful voice, offer to help him shop
for wheelchairs so he'll be ready when he won't be able walk anymore.
Do not be rational or fair when you attempt this. They're not being
fair with you.
