News

Editorial: Learn and find a cure

By Scott Wagar

11/13/2012

Late last week, Joe Connable, a weekend anchor for KOMO Ch. 4 News and a Type I diabetic, accidently died after his insulin pump malfunctioned, which sent him into a serious insulin reaction that he was unable to recover from.

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month and through Connable’s passing it only shows that there is no cure for diabetes in this world at this present time.

Connable’s death also shows that we must never forget the seriousness of this terrible disease and that we have to find a cure for the millions of people throughout the world who have diabetes.

Oddly, most people think because there is an artificial insulin for diabetics to take, diabetes has been cured. However, that is not the case. Pharmaceutical insulin is just that, a medication, it’s not a cure in any sense.

To understand the serious of diabetes, here are some facts from the National Diabetes Foundation.

•  In America, 25.8 million children and adults in the United States (8.3 percent of the population) have diabetes.
•  Of the 25.8 million people with diabetes, 18.8 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, seven million people have not been diagnosed yet with their diabetes, and, it is estimated that 79 million people are pre-diabetic.
•  Incredibly 1.9 million individuals who were age 20 and older in 2010 were diagnosed with diabetes.
•  Adults with diabetes have heart disease death rates about two to four times higher than an adult without diabetes and are two to four times more likely to have a stroke.
•  Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 20 to 74.
•  Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure.
• Diabetes causes high-blood pressure, neuropathy and lower-limb amputations.
• The cost of diagnosed diabetics in 2007 was 174 billion dollars, 116 billion in direct medical cost and 58 billion for indirect cost (disability, work loss and premature mortality).

As you can see, diabetes is far from being cured and it is a difficult disease to care for; and, I speak from personal experience. As a child, I was diagnosed with Type I diabetes and I have had to deal with numerous insulin shots on a daily basis, daily blood sugar tests and complicated diets.

It is not a fun disease, because from one day to the next you never know what is going to happen to you. Worries of going blind, loosing one’s kidneys and dying from the disease are never far away in a diabetic’s mind.

Diabetes is just not a medical issue of your pancreas not producing insulin and causing high blood sugars, it is a mental, physically and emotional disease that is a constant guessing game when caring for the disease.

With such alarming stats that I have listed here, along with individuals dying on a daily basis from diabetes, I would encourage individuals to take the time to learn more about diabetes and donate money to the American Diabetic Association in hopes of finding a cure. By doing so, a cure can be found and diabetics will not have to worry about diabetes, its complications or… having to die from something like a malfunction insulin pump.

Yes, diabetes is treatable, and great advances are taking place; however, diabetes is serious and it can happen to anyone. So, take the time this month to get more involved with diabetes and finding a cure because who knows, by doing so you might be saving a family member or friend’s life.