{"id":7133,"date":"2010-04-30T10:45:02","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T14:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:45:54","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:45:54","slug":"ten-things-i-like-about-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133","title":{"rendered":"Ten Things I Like About Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I complain about diabetes all the time, and lament the weight of that monkey on my shoulders. But let&#8217;s face it. It could be worse. Diabetes isn&#8217;t so bad, right? Every once in a while, I need to remind myself of that&#8211; so here are ten things I like about diabetes.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>It doesn&#8217;t involve chronic pain. Intermittent pain from needles and other medical devices, yes&#8211; but that&#8217;s far preferable to consistent aching, bruising, bleeding, or anything like that.<\/li>\n<li>I get to be part-cyborg. Yeah, that&#8217;s because there&#8217;s no cure yet, but I must admit the tools are kind of fun to play with, aside from the invasiveness.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s not AIDS.<\/li>\n<li>I have a handy excuse to not eat that scary-looking, mayonnaise-filled, heart-attack-inducing dessert at the church potluck. (Why is that layer green? I think I just saw it move.)<\/li>\n<li>Biologically speaking, diabetes is fascinating. Have you ever read about the cellular mechanics of the immune system? And the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Islets_of_Langerhans\" target=\"_blank\">islets of Langerhans<\/a>? If it weren&#8217;t my daily burden, it would be a fabulous case study of the intricacies of our internal biological systems.<\/li>\n<li>People know about it. Especially with the growing press about Type 2 diabetes, I can usually say, &#8220;I&#8217;m a diabetic,&#8221; and at least get a nod of recognition, without having to explain to everyone I meet what the disease is. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rarediseases.org\/search\/rdbdetail_abstract.html?disname=Alkaptonuria\" target=\"_blank\">Alkaptonuriacs<\/a>, on the other hand, are not so lucky.<\/li>\n<li>I bring food into museums, movie theaters, and music halls, and most security guards take &#8220;I&#8217;m diabetic&#8221; as excuse enough.<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s a lot of blood involved in diabetes, but other than that, I don&#8217;t have to deal with many awkward or unpleasant bodily fluids.<\/li>\n<li>I can still have kids, and the changes of them being diabetic is low, even though not negligible. Plus, with all the recent progress in treating recent-onset and probable diabetes, my hopes are high that my children will not have to deal with diabetes.<\/li>\n<li>The cure is coming. Yeah, I know they&#8217;ve been saying that for years, and I know the medical device and pharmaceutical companies don&#8217;t have much incentive to find a cure&#8211; but the university and research community is out there working, and the JDRF is out there funding, and it&#8217;s a solvable problem. <a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/a-sweet-life-staff\/in-the-news\/type-1-in-the-news\/researchers-cure-type-1-diabetes-in-mice\/6732\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nanotech<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sanfordburnham.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">stem-cells<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/a-sweet-life-staff\/featured\/islet-sheet-technology\/7033\/\" target=\"_blank\">islet sheets<\/a>, and so on&#8211; the cure is coming, and I&#8217;m getting in line.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Have anything to add? What is worth appreciating about diabetes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":53098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1501],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.9 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ten Things I Like About Diabetes | ASweetLife<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Karmel Allison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133\",\"name\":\"Ten Things I Like About Diabetes | ASweetLife\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ASL-Social-Big-Square-3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-04-30T14:45:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-27T20:45:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f5fcddf5f602b824791c194a1ab8d4d3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ASL-Social-Big-Square-3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ASL-Social-Big-Square-3.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":1280},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=7133#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ten Things I Like About Diabetes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\",\"name\":\"ASweetLife\",\"description\":\"The Diabetes Magazine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f5fcddf5f602b824791c194a1ab8d4d3\",\"name\":\"Karmel Allison\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/64faa2c004e005a70478b823e766a419?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/64faa2c004e005a70478b823e766a419?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Karmel Allison\"},\"description\":\"Karmel was born in Southern California, diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of nine, and educated at UC Berkeley. 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