Stolen shamelessly from the Facebook profile of George Takei (aka Mr. Sulu).
The topic of type 2 diabetes has gotten a lot of attention in the past week. While I’m happy to see the disease getting more general exposure, and Americans gaining a better understanding about the disease, I have found myself extremely frustrated that its quickly jumped onto that growing list of conditions and problems that can be solved by taking “medicine” (there’s a pill for that, right?).
Prevention is THE BEST medicine. Type 2 diabetes can often be cured without a needle or a pill. But there lies the challenge. It takes a ton of discipline and often times a person has to undo decades of bad habits to get healthy. From my perspective, most unhealthy Americans — whether they have type 2 diabetes or not — lack the ability to change their lifestyles to make themselves well.
Sure you could eat like crap, avoid exercise and otherwise take very bad care of yourself and never have a problem. A lot of people do. But that is essentially playing Russian roulette with your future. You could skate by “scott-free.” The alternative: someday in your future you could find yourself in a doctor’s office staring at a dramatically altered future full of alarming news and warnings. Unpleasant realities that could include a loss of vision, a lack of feeling in your hands and feet, the loss of a toe, or worse, losing a limb. My father was a type 2 diabetic, and I had a front row seat with how evil the disease can be.
While a lot depends on genetic makeup and a predisposition to the disease, type 2 diabetes does not play favorites. It needs no celebrity messenger, no messiah.
Does it need a cure? Before we cure diabetes, we need to cure our own ignorance toward our own health. The things that prevent type 2 diabetes are largely within our control; diet, exercise, sleep. Be your own cure. Never get diabetes in the first place.
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- Introducing The Juvenile Diabetes Cure Alliance (diabetesdaily.com)
