𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜’𝗺 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝘆: Rethinking Diabetes by Gary Taubes.

I’ll be honest. This is the third time I’ve tried to read this book and I still didn’t get through it. But since it’s written by the same person who wrote The Case Against Sugar and The Case for KETO I expect food and what people with diabetes “should” and “shouldn’t” eat fills the bulk of the book.

At any rate, I’ve only gotten through his telling of the early history of diabetes care, which centers on Banting and his contemporaries. And two things struck me in its telling.

1️⃣ 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲. There were no double-blind studies conducted when insulin was discovered. That wasn’t a thing yet. There were case notes for a handful of patients who managed to get themselves to one of the few hospitals where one of the self-appointed primary investigators practiced medicine.

And

2️⃣ 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗮𝗹𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀. Granted, before insulin therapy a diabetes diagnosis was a death sentence. You were going to die from it, it was just a question of how soon. But even with all the improvements in treatments and technology the tone remains charged with anger, fear, and shame.

I can still hear the echoes of these early experiences in so many ways. In how diabetes is talked about. The assumptions people make when they hear the word diabetes. The treatments that get approved and promoted. The approaches that are ignored or sidelined.

You may ask, so what? To which I say, while our past does not equal our future it does influence how we move ahead. My hope is that we stay curious and open to new information and not be limited by what we think we already know.

#DiabetesAwarenessMonth #diabetes #WorldDiabetesDay

Originally published on LinkedIn.