The most striking picture in the diabetes stories in the Sunday October 24, 2010 Enquirer is where the amputee is being helped up by someone at the dialysis clinic (not clear if she’s a worker or a friend, and not clear if she’s helping) who is very large, and likely a diabetic herself – or headed that way, for sure.
What is it about being addicted to fat, sugar and salt that people don’t understand? They don’t know it’s an addiction? They think they really like this stuff? They really think that feeling is pleasure, rather than the momentary cessation of addictive need, soon to come again?
And what is it they think they’ll be giving up? An increasing misery over a shorter and shorter lifetime?
I’m always puzzled about why folk aren’t motivated by going forward to easy movement, lightness, the increasing ability to have fun. I’m not convinced that sitting in front of the TV and eating chips and ice cream (or hotdogs and cheese) is fun. Doesn’t work for me.
At least, in the articles in the series that I’ve seen, there is the clear statement that many people bring diabetes on themselves. But the articles continue in medical mode, talking about efforts to find a cure. There is only a bit about maybe, actually, could we? consider changing. When that is the cheapest, easiest, least physically damaging and most fun way to let go.
Evidently bariatric surgery works to reduce and eliminate diabetes. There are still longer term physical effects to all of those medical interventions. Though I’m glad it works. Diabetes costs this country and our medical care system a ton of time, material and money. And the individual misery is incalculable.
I’ve always called diabetes a fork disease (so is much of heart disease) – meaning we give it to ourselves with our forks. Maybe we should just eliminate forks. But then people could just use chips to scoop up the glop.