Myths vs Reality about Diabetes

 

Myths vs Reality about Diabetes

It is important that you educate yourself about diabetes so that you can help your child manage it. This means arming yourself with all the right information. Although the Internet is full of content about diabetes, it does not always contain adequate information. When information is misinterpreted, inaccurate, or confusing, it can be harmful to people with diabetes. Even the most well-meaning friends and relatives can give incorrect information.

Talk to members of your child's diabetes healthcare team when you come across information that doesn't seem right, sounds too good to be true, or contradicts what they have explained to you. Do not make any changes to your child's diabetes management plan without the approval of a member of your diabetes team.

Myth: Eating too much sugar causes diabetes.
Fact: Type 1 diabetes is caused by the destruction of the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, which is not related to the consumption of sugar. Type 2 diabetes is caused by the body's inability to respond to insulin normally. Although the tendency to develop type 2 diabetes is inherited in most cases, eating too much sugar (or eating too many sugar-rich foods, such as sweets and soft drinks) can increase body weight, which can increase the risk of developing this type of diabetes.

Myth: children with diabetes can never eat candy.
Fact: Children with diabetes can eat a certain amount of sweet foods as part of a balanced diet, but they need to control the total amount of carbohydrates ingested, and this includes sweets and candies. Because candy has no real nutritional value and only provides calories, it should be limited, but not necessarily eliminated entirely. All children (and all adults!) Should avoid excessive consumption of foods of little nutritional value and eat plenty of healthy foods.

Myth: Children can outgrow diabetes with age.
Fact: Children don't outgrow diabetes with age. In type 1 diabetes, the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas are destroyed. And, once destroyed, they never make insulin again. Children affected by this type of diabetes will always need insulin (until a cure for diabetes is found). Although children with type 2 diabetes may notice improvements in their blood sugar levels after puberty or make lifestyle changes, they are most likely always prone to high blood sugar levels, especially if they lead physically inactive lives or gain too much weight.

Myth: Diabetes is contagious.
Fact: Diabetes is not contagious. It cannot be hit by someone else. Despite the fact that researchers believe that the development of type 1 diabetes could be triggered by some environmental factor, such as a virus, most people who develop this type of diabetes have inherited genes that make them more prone to this disease.

Myth: high blood sugar levels are normal for some people and are not a sign of diabetes.
Fact: Certain conditions (such as stress and some illnesses) and certain medications (such as corticosteroids) can temporarily raise blood sugar levels in people without diabetes. But high blood sugar is never normal. Those people whose blood sugar concentration is high or who have sugar in the urine should be studied whether or not they are diabetic.

Myth: People with diabetes can tell if their blood sugar levels are high or low.
Fact: Although a person with diabetes may have bodily symptoms (such as extreme thirst, weakness, or fatigue), the only way to know if their blood sugar level is excessively high or excessively low is to measure it. For example, since the blood sugar level has to be too high to cause symptoms, a person who does not check the amount of sugar in their blood often can have such high levels that they can harm their body without realizing it.

Myth: all people with diabetes need to take insulin.
Fact: All people with type 1 diabetes must inject insulin because their pancreas has stopped making it. Some, but not all, people with type 2 diabetes must take insulin, and may or may not need pills to control their blood glucose.

Myth: insulin cures diabetes.
Fact: Taking insulin helps control diabetes, but it does not cure it. Insulin helps remove glucose from the bloodstream and into cells where it is used for energy. And this helps control blood sugar levels, but taking insulin does not correct the underlying cause of diabetes.

Myth: diabetes pills are a type of insulin.
Fact: Diabetes medications taken by mouth (by mouth) are not a type of insulin. Insulin is a protein that, if swallowed, would be broken down by the acids and digestive enzymes present in the stomach and intestine. Today, there is only one way to administer insulin: by injections, although researchers are studying new ways of administration (oral, nasal and inhalation). Some people with type 2 diabetes take pills or tablets that help the body make more insulin or use insulin more effectively. But these pills or tablets cannot help children with type 1 diabetes because they cannot make insulin on their own.