Diabetes myths

“If you go ‘low’ then you need insulin”
“The dog tells you when you need to have insulin”

Low and high refer to a diabetics blood sugar level. When a diabetic is low they need to have a quick acting sugar followed by a longer lasting one. If you suspect a diabetic has low blood sugar – give them a sweet drink. Giving insulin when a diabetic is low can lead to death.

“If being low is life threatening – why can’t you just keep your levels high?”

High blood sugar levels result in extreme thirst, excessive urination and can lead to the production of ketones and ketoacidosis. High blood sugar levels also increase a diabetics risk of getting complications later in life such as eye damage, kidney damage and many more.

“Only fat and unhealthy people get diabetes”
“Did you feed him too much junk food?”
“What did you do to cause it?”

Diabetes is an endocrine disease and is basically caused by a problem with the amounts of insulin produced by the beta cells in the pancreas – anyone can get diabetes!

“You can’t eat that, you’re diabetic”

Sweets and chocolate are no more out of bounds to people with diabetes than they are to the rest of us, if eaten as part of a healthy diet.

“He’ll be ok when he grows up, won’t he?”

When children get diabetes, it is usually type 1, or insulin dependent diabetes. This form of diabetes is caused by the destruction of the beta cells in the pancreas.