Friday, February 5, 2010

Oprah on diabetes


I have to say, I love Oprah. I would be lying if I said I've never seen it, but the episodes I've caught, her energy and ability to connect is unparalleled. I always think about that scene in Oceans 13 where George Clooney is caught by Brad Pitt drinking a bottle of wine, alone, watching Oprah with a hint of tears in his eyes. In Pitt's attempts to rob Clooney's manhood from him...he gets caught up in the episode and his eyes well up. Great scene and so true.

A subject near and dear to my heart is of course Diabetes. You can imagine the excitement about someone like Oprah taking on the disease and making it relevant to the masses. She had her usual panel of energetic non-doctor doctors...meaning the ones that remove the white coat and connect with people (imagine that). They focused on the sensational and horrifying aspects of lack of control, showing amputations and other stuff, naming diabetes as the "silent killer". Okay, cool now everyone's attention has been focused....

Now I have to disclaim that I am absolutely in the minority of the populous by being type 1 diabetes centric. I manage one on a day-day and night-night basis. 90% of the diabetics out there are type 2. So of course mainstream media will try to communicate with a 90% market share vs. a 10%. That's just good business. Oprah's show is a business, with all of the philanthropy and connection that she brings, it's a business that makes money, freaking gobs of money. Type 2 diabetes will be the single largest financial burden on the planet (not just the health care system) in history, and that means that smart companies will be seeking ways to capitalize on it, we can only hope with good intentions. The most motivated customer is someone that has something to lose, exponential motivation when a life is on the line.

I wanted Oprah to clarify in the episode that:

- Kids get type 1 diabetes without any opportunity to stop it. Their own body (pancreatic islet cells) fails them.
- Adults get type 2 diabetes having ignored 15-20 years of preventable lifestyle habits. They failed their body. (in most cases anyway)

I'm asked on occasion, which means it's thought even more that between the ages of 0-8 months, we fed Cadence too much sugar and therefore she got "Diabetes" at 8 months old. It's not the fault of the person asking, it's just that the delineation between the two types is not made clearly enough, even by our own advocacy groups. The greatest disservice to type 1 diabetics was that we didn't get a cool and unique disease name...like "pancreatic insufficiency" or "islet apathy" LOL, I like that one.

Oprah and Dr. Oz, in my opinion, covered Type2 diabetes very well but didn't seperate the types properly, but the message of the show was a good one, and that is prevention is the key to save lives and lightening the immense impending health care system pressure from diabetes in general. When they talked about "warning signs" one of the top 5 was neuropathies, which are typically a late stage complication. What was left off the list was these 3 things (for type 2's):

1. Poor dietary habits - everyone who eats a big mac knows they shouldn't.
2. Poor/lack of exercise
3. Overweight.

How do those get left off the list?? The three silent but OBVIOUS symptoms aren't talked about??

I also wanted her to clarify that a 2 year old with 65-75 years of Type 1 diabetes expense, as much as 1000.00/month, may be as expensive to the system as type 2 diabetes. I don't know if someone has looked at the numbers but I bet it's close, but it wasn't touched upon. Dr. Oz said, with type 1 there's nothing you can do to prevent it, but there's alot of treatments for it....he should have said but why aren't these preventative measures funded and supported? Only outcomes, PREDICTABLE, expensive, and inevitable outcomes from the disease are funded and supported.

From a health care system standpoint, there has not be a death recorded from diabetes since the mid-70's. It was taken off of the list of possibe causes of death. Diabetes doesn't kill people, the complications of the disease do. Want to know the local irony of that policy? Preventative measures for type 1 diabetes (needles, pumps, insulin, test strips) are NOT covered in our health care system! The financial burden for control is shouldered by the caregivers based on their financial wherewithal. Treatment for severe retinopathy, neuropathy, organ failure, obesity, etc...are covered by the system! Talk about a band-aid for a bullet wound. If diabetes was labelled as a fatal disease, more might be available in advance of the inevitable.

Progressive thinking by governments about funding truely preventative measures for all diabetics (supplies for type 1's, fitness and lifestyle for type 2's) would save the health care system TRILLIONS. As it stands now...the deck is stacked against diabetics to fail...whether they had a fighting chance to avoid it or not.

I thank Oprah and Dr. Oz for doing a decent job of covering the topic, most of all bringing awareness, but I hope for a part 2.