A friend of mine recently happened to run into a woman she hadn’t seen in a long time. The other woman had lost weight, and my friend complimented her on how slim she looked. The woman replied: “Well, you know, I was just diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.”
My friend was shocked, and expressed her sympathy. Still, she couldn’t help also thinking: Wow, I wish I’d get diabetes if it would make me look like that! Immediately she felt guilty. Of course she didn’t really want to have diabetes–how could such a thing have occurred to her?
To me, this yearning for a life-changing diagnosis is understandable. I’ve heard people express similar wishes before; after finding out that my brother has celiac disease, another friend told me she half-wished she would be diagnosed with the disease, too, so that she would be forced to stop eating wheat (which she considered an unhealthy grain). I think that many of us would like to lead healthier lifestyles but postpone doing so indefinitely. We long for an official diagnosis because we feel it would give us the extra little push we need to get on the right track.
For many people with type 2 diabetes, an official diagnosis can really be a “blessing in disguise.” Knowing the seriousness of your condition can be an inspiration for change. And if type 2 diabetics continue to diet and exercise, they can potentially not only rid themselves of diabetes but also simply become healthier than they were before being diagnosed.
The problem is that it’s hard to maintain the vigilance that a diagnosis first inspires. Imaging that a diagnosis will enforce immediate and permanent change makes a pleasing narrative, but real life doesn’t always follow such a smooth trajectory. When I was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, I counted my carbs and calculated insulin doses meticulously. I even made a chart to record my blood sugar at different points in the day. But as time went on and the shock of my diagnosis wore off, I started to get more lax–neglecting my chart, estimating the amount of carbs in a meal instead of measuring it exactly. I realized that the effects of any “wake-up call” don’t necessarily last forever. A doctor’s pronouncement doesn’t force you to change your lifestyle. Ultimately, that change depends on your own determination–just as it did before you were diagnosed.
And in the case of celiac disease, the diagnosis itself might not require you to be all that healthy. It’s true that a person with celiac disease shouldn’t consume wheat, but gluten-free substitutes for wheat-based products (like gluten-free bread, crackers, and cereal) often use corn flour. Considering the amount of corn and corn starch that most Americans eat on a daily basis, it hardly seems healthy to add even more to one’s diet. And while someone with celiac disease shouldn’t eat gluten-contain unhealthy foods like cake or cookies–or Krispy Kreme Doughnuts!–they can still have their fill of most potato chips and ice creams.
So I guess the moral of my post is… be careful what you wish for. Being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or celiac disease isn’t necessarily a blessing in disguise, although I admire people who have the tenacity and willpower to turn it into one.
:)
You know, just because you don’t fill out a chart every time doesn’t necessarily mean “being lax”. After a while you and I figured out how many units for how many carbs worked well and didn’t need the chart all the time anymore. All those numbers (carbs, bg’s, units, etc. ) are useful and we still use them, just that we don’t need that chart to do so. Kinda reminds me of when me and my wife had our first kid; in the hospital because we were “new parents” we were offered all sorts of parenting classes and charts for… Read more »
I actually feel very strongly like my food allergies are a blessing! It forced me to read labels and cook from scratch, and I am healthier for it. Some people think cooking from scratch is hard but it’s not.
I have to say, I feel A MILLION times better now in my 30s than I felt in my teens and 20s. I only wish someone had cared enough about me back then to tell me how bad processed and convenience foods can be on your body. It’s literally poison!
A neighbor of mine has fairly serious asthma and yet is quite athletic despite this disease. He told me recently that his doctor once said, “the healthiest people he knew were people with a well managed chronic disease.” As a diagnosed pre-diabetic coming from a family with a genetic predisposition for type 2 I class myself along with my friend and neighbor in this category. It is that wake up call that motivates us (although I am still working on that last 5 pounds…).