Diabetes Fact or Myth

Here are some of the most frequently-mentioned myths, along with the actual facts:

Myth: Taking insulin "cures" diabetes.
Fact: Taking insulin keeps people with type 1 diabetes alive, but does not cure the disease. At this time, there is no cure for diabetes. Nor does insulin prevent the development of complications, which can include kidney failure, blindness, limb amputation, heart attack, stroke, and nerve damage.

Myth: With insulin, people with type 1 diabetes can live a "normal" life.
Fact: While children and adults with type 1 diabetes strive to live as full and active a life as possible, a "normal" life for them includes constant vigilance, a daily effort to achieve metabolic balance, frequent finger sticks each day to check blood sugars, and multiple daily insulin injections. Even with the greatest care, it is not always possible to achieve ideal blood sugar control. Low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia) can lead to serious reactions, and, over time, high blood sugar levels can result in life-limiting and life-shortening complications.

Myth: Diabetes is caused by obesity, or eating too much sugar.
Fact: While obesity has been identified as one of the "triggers" for type 2 diabetes, it has no relation to the cause of type 1 diabetes. Scientists do not yet know exactly what causes type 1 diabetes, but they believe that both genetic and environmental factors are involved. Eating too much sugar has not been shown to be a factor.

Myth: With strict adherence to a specific diet and exercise plan, and multiple insulin injections each day based on careful monitoring of blood sugar levels, a person with type 1 diabetes can gain tight control over his or her blood sugar levels.
Fact: While the above strategy is certainly recommended as the most effective way to achieve and maintain tight control of blood sugar levels, which is key to preventing the complications of type 1 diabetes, it is not always successful. Good blood sugar control can be very difficult to achieve. Many factors, including stress, hormone changes, periods of growth, medications, illness/infection, and fatigue can easily cause blood sugars to swing out of control. Teenagers, in particular, may be susceptible to this problem, as their bodies go through the many changes that occur during adolescence. Also, some people with type 1 diabetes are termed "brittle," meaning that though they strive for tight control, and are in good compliance with their meal plan and insulin schedule, they still experience rapid fluctuations in their blood glucose.

Myth: People with diabetes can never eat sweets.
Fact: Limiting sweets will help people with type 1 diabetes keep their blood sugar under control, but, with advice from their doctor or nutritionist, sweets can be fit into their meal plan. And, if the blood sugar level drops too low, sweets (or juice, or soda) must be consumed to raise it, and prevent the onset of hypoglycemia.

Myth: People with diabetes can never drink alcohol.
Fact: Alcohol contains calories but no nutrients. Adults with type 1 diabetes do not necessarily have to rule out drinking alcohol, but they should talk with their doctor or nutritionist about how it fits into their meal plan, and about alcohol's effects on the body. For example, if a person drinks alcohol on an empty stomach, it can make his or her blood glucose level fall too low.

Myth: You have to be a kid to get type 1 diabetes.
Fact: Type 1 diabetes, also known as "juvenile" or "juvenile onset" diabetes, is usually first diagnosed in children, teenagers, or young adults. However, people may develop type 1 diabetes at any age.

Myth: Kids don't get type 2 diabetes.
Fact: Though type 2 diabetes is usually diagnosed in adulthood, increased obesity and other factors have led to a recent "epidemic" of this form of diabetes in young adults and children under ten years of age.

Myth: With the new techniques for transplants, there is now a successful "cure" for type 1 diabetes.
Fact: Islet transplantation (implanting the insulin-producing cells to replace those that have been destroyed in people with type 1 diabetes) currently offers the best hope of cure for people with type 1 diabetes. Since the breakthrough of the Edmonton Protocol in 2000, more than 250 transplanted patients have been living free from the need for insulin injections. However, as successful as recent trials have been, there remain a number of serious obstacles before islet transplantation may be considered as a true cure for diabetes;and a treatment available for children. Right now, people who have transplants must take powerful, potentially harmful drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent rejection of the transplanted cells. There is also a severe shortage of islets for human transplantation, and new sources must be found. The good news is that scientists are working to develop means to prevent rejections from occurring without the need for lifetime drug therapy, to develop less harmful drugs, and to find other sources of islet cells, thereby providing an unlimited supply.

Myth: Women with diabetes should not get pregnant.
Fact: Women with diabetes can have successful pregnancies. Thanks to advances in diabetes research, knowledge, and management, the outlook for pregnant women with diabetes is better today than it was a generation ago. However, challenges still exist. In deciding to have a child, a woman with diabetes (and her partner) should understand that diabetic pregnancy requires extra effort and commitment, excellent blood sugar control, education in all areas of diabetes management, and financial resources for extra laboratory and medical tests and hospitalization for tests. The most crucial factor in having a healthy pregnancy is to have excellent blood sugar control before becoming pregnant. Studies have shown that good blood sugar control before conception;as documented by a hemoglobin A1c (HBA1c) test in the normal range—as well as throughout the entire pregnancy, significantly reduces the incidence of birth abnormalities.

Myth: No matter what I do, I will get complications.
Fact: Complications are not inevitable. The mechanisms that cause complications are not yet fully understood, and the extent to which they develop varies from person to person. Tight blood sugar control is the only method demonstrated to reduce the risk of developing complications, but their occurence remains unpredictable in any individual. Some individuals with type 1 diabetes may be genetically predisposed to develop complications (a critical issue being addressed by JDRF's GoKinD and other studies to identify predisposing genes).

                                                
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