I’m watching television right now (yay laptop!).
I’m watching “Diabetes: The Quiet Killer” on NBC. It’s hosted by Al Roker.
They started out talking about the complications of diabetes, the statistics of diabetes, the people with diabetes.
They’re talking to Patti LaBelle and Fran Kaufman, and other doctors from around the country.
After a five minute introduction where they only referred to the blanket term “diabetes,” which we all know pisses off 99% of type 1 diabetics who don’t like being lumped in with the “old, fat people” syndrome (no offense to those with type 2 diabetes - this is simply the stereotype).
Then Al clears things up, “There are actually two types of diabetes: type 1 diabetes happens when you are young and are caused by genetics, and only two million people have that problem.”
Sometimes. Kind of. And excuse me?
Now, I appreciate the fact that NBC is running this show (which must be heavily funded by Eli Lilly, since they are the only advertiser shown so far). It’s the weekend before World Diabetes Day and with so many people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I don’t have an issue with running a show that examines the difficulty of living a healthy life in America and actually goes into the scientific cause of what happens with diabetes, as well as issues that face people with type 2 diabetes like insurance and overcoming our culture’s tendency towards overabundance at the dinner table and our chronic underactivity.
I hope that people who watch this will learn more about diabetes and the fact that diabetes is the only illness that is getting worse, not better.
But I am very disappointed that once again, type 1 diabetes is marginalized because we’re “small in numbers.” Sure, maybe that’s a good thing, but it’s not good enough.
Thanks, Al, for once again belittling type 1 diabetics. I expected more from NBC.
