Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

In a moment of complete boredom last week, I actually Googled the word “diabetes”. You know, just to see what would come up.

Fortunately, the top search results were primarily from diabetes organizations here in the USA, and from various diagnosis/doctor websites. In all those cases, the groups devoted a page, or part of a page, to describe what diabetes is.

So, because I like a little adventure now and then, I decided to check out all those descriptions. Well, not all, really. In fact, I looked at about ten of them. I didn’t want to be too adventurous, after all.

Far and away, I thought the best description belonged to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, or NIDDK, because I can never remember National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

NIDDK is a division of the National Institutes of Health here in the United States, and they do a tremendous amount of work in this area. They are among the most important of government workers dedicated to diabetes research.

I liked their description because, first of all, they described diabetes in succinct, easy to understand terms. I also liked this little bit they threw in too:

“Sometimes people call diabetes “a touch of sugar” or “borderline diabetes.” These terms suggest that someone doesn’t really have diabetes or has a less serious case, but every case of diabetes is serious.”

The description goes on to mention the most common types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2, and also has links to other forms of diabetes like monogenic diabetes (like MODY) and cystic fibrosis-related diabetes. Most descriptions online leave these out completely.

The page also lists the latest statistics on the prevalence of diabetes in my country, and links to what I think are important things to remember if you live with diabetes.

For now and future reference, you can find the full description HERE.

It seems we spend a lot of time these days noting when people get the facts wrong about diabetes. Just as important, I think, is noticing when we see the facts clearly presented as they are, in language that nearly everyone can understand. Trust me… it’s worth the bookmark.