Aspies For Freedom

There are no plagues to keep themselves busy.

If I had diabetes, I would not want everyone to know.  Some people could lose their jobs because of this.  They could also lose their insurance.  Discrimination is real.

I have heard that the Canadian government wants to start fighting obesity aggressively the same way they have done with cigarrette smoking.  They want to label certains foods.   I just hope they do not ban poutine and ice cream.

What is poutine?

What it has to do with autism is that if countries first allow "tracking" of diabetics, and potentially "enforced" treatment, then it is only reasonable (and historically sound) to expect that "tracking" and "enforced treatment" of autistics won't be far behind.

I like your husband.  He dreams my dreams.
But don't worry, I don't want to trade - I like my husband, too.  :wink: LOL

Poutine is a Quebec favourite.  Poutine is potato fries with cheese curds and gravy.   Yum.   Very high in fat but I like it for a treat sometimes.   I do not know if I like it better with chicken gravy or beef gravy?

Diabetes kills and maims people. Autism doesn't. Insulin controls type I diabetes such that it can prevent many of the deaths and injuries caused by diabetes. Autism has no effective drug controls. A rebellious diabetic teenager not taking care of himself causes uncorrectable damage. An autistic teenager not on medication is not doing any irrevocable damage. Have any of you read Long Time No See? Have you noticed that the life expectancy for diabetics is only two thirds that of nondiabetics?
Diabetes is a serious medical condition. Autism is not.

I also wonder if some kind of virus is causing diabetes, particularly the later onset type 2 diabetes. It's fashionable to blame being overweight and eating a lot of sugar and fats for causing it and there is no doubt these things are often associated with it. However, I also know of lots of people who've eaten healthily, exercised and not been overweight who've developed diabetes.

I think there needs to be more research into the causes of diabetes because there is still a real lot that we don't know about this condition.

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/46/1...scausesdia

Diabetes type 1:  the cells that produce insulin are destroyed by the body's immune system -  that much is known.   The immune system response could be caused by a virus or microorganism??????  There is a genetic component because diabetes tends to run in families.

Some drugs that are prescribed to people who have dx's of  mental problems,  such as olanzapine, risperdal and epilim,  change the way the body metabolises sugar. These medications ( and in fact ANY medication that affects the metabolic processes in the body- there are many)

Any drug that has a side effect of causing weight gain is not only causing cravings that are very hard to control- it is also actually altering the way the body deals with simple carbohydrate. It is as if the body is getting the message that it needs energy but it can no longer get the energy from harder to digest foods.

This is finally being recognised as a BIG problem by those who work with people taking these drugs. Because of the sedating effects, people find it hard to wake up enough to move. Because the drugs affect coordination and blood pressure, it is hard to use the body effectively. Because the body cannot get energy because the metabolic processes have been disrupted it asks for simple sugars and weight gain happens. Which results in low self esteem so not maintaining relationships well.

All these things contribute to not only Diabetes type 2. Other metabolic disorders happen like Thyroid problems and autoimmune diorder.

Diabetes type 2 can occur in anyone but it is less well understood why it happens because there seem to be many factors, such as genetic vulnerability, age ( the body deals with sugar less well as it ages- remember when you were younger and you could eat heaps of lollies?) People with type 2 have insulin resistance and abnormal secretion of insulin making it high.
It is more complicated than Type 1 because it varies in an individual.

Here is something i got from Medscape:   http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/464903

...people with type 2 diabetes have insulin resistance and abnormal secretion of insulin (high insulin secretion). These changes in insulin secretion usually occurs early and prior to the diagnosis of an abnormally high sugar. Eventually, as the disease progresses the pancreas can't keep up with the excess amounts of insulin secretion and the person develops high sugars. Doctors believe the insulin resistance comes first, but why it occurs is unclear. After years of the pancreas secreting high levels it eventually becomes exhausted so the secretion of insulin becomes extremely limited and insulin will be required to control sugars.


Type 1 diabetes appears to occur when something in the environment -- a toxin or a virus (but doctors aren't sure) -- triggers the immune system to mistakenly attack the pancreas and destroy the beta cells of the pancreas to the point where they can no longer produce sufficient insulin.

Markers of this destruction -called autoantibodies can be seen in most people with type 1 diabetes. In fact, they are present in 85-90% of people with the condition when the blood sugars are high.

Because it's an autoimmune disease, type 1 diabetes can occur along with other autoimmune diseases such as hyperthyroidism from Grave's disease or the patchy decrease in skin pigmentation that occurs with vitiligo. ...

We take a lot of drugs for things that can be managed in other ways if we only understood what was happening in the body. This isn't just due to our ignorance- it is because doctors and health providers don't make much effort to communicate and educate. People can understand if they are treated with respect right from the start.
Respecting people means treating someone as an individual- not Tracking them like statistical data.  
Don't be a number, decide what is healthy for you and do your own research.
becca