Insulin Dependent Diabetes

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I decided to write an opinion about diabetes because it’s a subject I feel passionately about. This op is largely about type-1 (or insulin dependent) diabetes, as that’s what I’m most familiar with and is appropriate to this category. However, a lot of it will apply to other types equally. There are around 2.4 million people with various forms of diabetes in the UK, but only 1.4 million have been diagnosed. The others are referred to as the missing million. Given the long term health implications of remaining undiagnosed, it’s ...

DIABETES - The "Forgotten" Killer ~ ~ Cancer and heart disease are usually the first things that spring to mind when we think of killer diseases. Diabetes isn’t high on most peoples’ list. Yet a person dies from this little understood disease every three minutes. It is the leading cause of adult blindness, kidney failure, and non-traumatic amputations of the lower limbs. Type 1 or Insulin Dependant Diabetes is most commonly diagnosed in children, but can in fact occur at any age. It’s one of the most costly, chronic diseases of childhood and one you never outgrow. ~ ~ It is an autoimmune disease, in which the body ...

Yuk! Isn’t diabetes something to do with needles and injections? I’ve always had a real aversion to needles. Now I know that the injections the dentist does sometimes hurt a bit, but when I’ve had blood taken it hardly hurt at all and only occasionally bruised BUT… sticking a needle in and injecting yourself I just couldn’t do it! No! I just couldn’t do THAT. Nearly forty years ago I sat on a hospital bed feeling much better than I had for ages and 'they' gave me an orange and a disposable syringe. A really gentle, caring nurse said to me, “ Practise with that and as soon as you can inject yourself you ...