I hate this image. I hate everything about it. First off this person cannot do simple subtraction, second, and more importantly it illustrates the complete and total ignorance of some people when it comes to understanding diabetes, type 1 or type 2. Add to this (math joke, womp womp) the misunderstandings between type 1 and type 2, which are two entirely different diseases, similar treatments are used, but the causes are entirely different… go ahead, ask a diabetic if they have the “good” kind or the “bad” kind of diabetes, I dare you…
I came across an article on my LinkedIn feed calling for the rebranding of type 1 diabetes to Auto-immuine Beta Cell Disorder or ABCD for short. The name makes sense, and speaks to the cause rather than the effect of the disease, which is how types of diabetes are classified in the first place. We saw an initial rebranding to type 1 from juvenile diabetes to address the association that only children could be diagnosed with type 1. Is this the next step? Could/would this stick? It would definitely help with the confusion with type 2 and maybe stop a few people from telling me about their (inser connection) who got on a diet and started working out and now they don’t have diabetes anymore… I don’t know though, I’m not sure how I feel about saying “I have ABCD” sounds kind of made up, like when you put place holder text in a presentation.