Research & Diabetes

I know Diabetes has never received the support for illness's like Aids or Cancer. I know more people die every year from Diabetes than Aids and Cancer combined It really makes me sad that a big part of the lack of funding stems from lack of knowledge of the general public. I know that I have had to educate my own family at times because they constantly hear the myths told and retold by the media. I have even seen on Oprah many years back a story on Diabetes and complications which makes us all look bad because they don't have the knowledge to understand. I still will occasionally get asked if I ate too much sugar to cause my Diabetes which I find puzzling because I was diagnosed at 18 months old. My mother did not feel us sugar all day so it is very insulting. I am saddened by the fact that these myths still exist.

I really wonder if more people had accurate knowledge about Diabetes that would help to increase funding for more research. I know they have made a great deal of progress in Diabetes but I really wonder if we had more funding over the years that right now we would have had better technologies or tools to deal with Diabetes than we currently do. Things are improving but I know the companies that produce the products until recently did not seem to ask a Diabetic about their opinions on the products functionality.

I know this being Diabetes Awareness Month and I know we as bloggers and advocates need to fight back more when bad articles are published full of misinformation that it does impact us all in many ways. I know being a Diabetes is frustrating enough without adding more myths to the mix of things. I know we have so much work to do to get things on track to increase funding for more research. I know working for a research University how important and how this research can change lives but I know with Diabetes not getting the funding it deserves it has always left me extremely frustrated.