Headline: Passport ownership prevents diabetes. Do YOU have a passport? Don’t forget to drink coffee! :)
(More seriously: Poverty is associated with diabetes. Most fat people don’t get diabetes. Thin people can develop diabetes. Oh, and Kelly Bliss notes that yellow teeth doesn’t cause lung cancer.)
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Guess I’d better hang onto that expired passport I have in my lingerie drawer! Or does it only work with current passports? Meh, Mr. Twistie has been talking about getting new ones, but he already has diabetes, so clearly it is far too late for him. That must mean I’ll have to go to London without him next time. (nods firmly and wisely)
This is why Mark Twain said there were lies, damned, lies, and then there were statistics.
We are being overmedicalized (a term coined by Dr. Nortin Hadler, I think) so that we are all “sick” with something. Never mind that aging causes all kinds of conditions and illnesses and that, sooner or later, one of them will carry us away, we must treat every symptom, ache, pain, and “abnormal” number that we have.
The health authorities keep changing the values of what is normal, so that soon almost the entire population are going to be labeled diabetic, hypertensive, and overweight.
Add to that, most of the treatments and pills we are given to make us “normal” often cause more harm than good, or they just treat the symptoms and do nothing to change our condition for the better. A good example – the drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes. They lower blood glucose, but don’t treat the underlying disease. It’s like suppressing your cough when you have pneumonia.
So millions of people are sticking their fingers several times a day and popping pills thinking they are preventing complications from type 2. When these complications develop in some folks, then the health authorities blame the patient. They assume the person was not compliant (I hate that word).
Statins are another example of a drug that is pushed on well people with no benefit and possible real harm (not to mention the cost and the effect on your sense of well-being to be thinking you are “at risk”).
The #1 risk factor for almost every serious illness is aging, and that one is hard to prevent. To attempt to keep all your “numbers” the same as when you were young is not only impossible, but causes more harm than good. Whatever happened to the part of the doctor’s oath, “First do no harm.”?
I do in fact have a passport! Got it when I was 18, before my first trip to a country where we actually needed one to get in (prior to that I had only been to Canada, and in the pre-9/11 days going to Canada was almost as easy as going to the next state over, no passport required). It’s a rather well-used passport if I do say so myself. Unfortunately I was diagnosed with diabetes this year, and may have had it for a while before then without it going diagnosed, so…I guess I”m the except to the rule!
Anyway, Patricia, now I’m curious — ARE there any drugs that treat the underlying disease and not just the symptoms of diabetes? I never bothered to research it before now so I honestly don’t know.
I’ve read that some diabetes meds help the pancreas to produce more insulin. However, this doesn’t “fix” the pancreas – once the drugs are stopped the pancreas goes back to the lower level. Also, age can make things worse in that the pancreas produces even less insulin.
Bah. I’m the exceptION to the rule. Totally haven’t had my morning coffee yet and my spelling suffers for it.
A lot of diseases are chronic and can’t (yet) be cured. We have beaten or greatly lessened the prevalence of acute diseases and that’s why more chronic ones are showing up.
As I understand it, keeping blood glucose lower significantly delays the onset of more severe diabetic symptoms.
I believe it’s an excellent thing that we can treat the symptoms of diseases that we can’t cure. Quality of life matters.
Life really is basically a crapshoot. We undergo treatments to get the most out of life of which we are capable. Even if you can’t ultimately win, don’t you want the best odds possible?
I have at times had a chronic cough, and you better believe I wanted that cough treated. Ever had one? It makes your chest hurt, your throat raw, and makes it difficult to breathe, talk, eat, sleep.
If a passport prevents diabetes, would a visa act as a booster shot?
Living ~400lbs 
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