There is a petition being circulated by 2 moms of children with T1 advocating for a name change for the two types of diabetes. The URL is http://www.change.org/petitions/revise-names-of-type-1-2-diabetes-to-reflect-the-nature-of-each-disease
I read the petition in its entirety, but I still disagree with it. Let me see if I can be organized about my reaction:
1. Dangers to T1 children are not caused by misconceptions about diabetes having been caused by the media attention to T2, but rather by ignorance about diabetes altogether. For example, T2s can and do have pass-out lows if they are on medication.
2. T2s frequently end up on insulin, because they DO experience beta-cell death, and this causes them to have all the same kinds of hassles that T1s have.
3. Care for anyone with diabetes depends on their personal needs, not an academically convenient type. Some people with T2 do not respond to oral meds, or have adverse reactions to them and go on insulin fairly soon after diagnosis, while some T1s develop insulin resistance and become obese during adult life, and doctors are increasingly using oral meds in addition to insulin in order to take care of them adequately.
4. There are more types than just T1 and T2. The fact that scientists have yet to discover exactly what is happening in the garbage-can diagnosis that currently constitutes T2 doesn't mean that they are all homogeneous. Plus there are other types such as gestational diabetes, ketosis-prone T2 (which is ALSO called idiopathic T1), stiff-man syndrome, thin T2, LADA, etc. etc. etc. Diabetes is actually a spectrum disorder, not an either/or.
5. MOST of the dissension between the "two" diabetes communities comes from parents and young people who react negatively to media presentations which discuss T2 without being specific. We, at Diabetes Advocates, work to educate the media -- all it takes is adding the words Type 2 to their presentations in order to educate people correctly. We feel that this would be a better solution than trying to change names.
6. Most T2s feel very denigrated and stigmatized by organizations and people who focus SO hard on T1 and don't have the time of day for T2. Organizations, as opposed to the media, almost exclusively focus on "the cure" for T1. T2 doesn't matter. The media articles are hard enough on them, and they need the support of T1s, not being thrown out into that stinky, discriminatory T2 garbage can.
7. Jeffrey Brewer, president of JDRF, IS trying to include adults with T1 into JDRF activities, but it hasn't had much effect. As a LADA, diagnosed at the age of 45, I feel very left out of the child/family-oriented T1 activities, but ALSO the diet and exercise activities aimed at T2. I feel very much like an orphan, and I want inclusion, not exclusion. Your division of diabetes into 2 types leaves a lot of us completely out, especially when we DON'T fit into the convenient etiologies which may change tomorrow. I was never a child with diabetes, and am not a person whom diet and exercise will help. I tried that, and it turned into a full-blown eating disorder, because I was trying so hard to fit into a box. It was like, if I could get thin enough, then I could accept that I had T1, and not T2. I lost weight, but it didn't work.
There is another thoughtful blog on this issue at http://www.thebuttercompartment.com which is written by Lee Ann Thill.
OK, this has turned into a rant, but the conclusion is that a name change will NOT help the greater diabetes community in any way, but more understanding from people concerned with one type for people of multiple other types would go along way toward gathering our strength to not only fight for a cure (which would only be for T1), but also help people live with the vastly difficult emotional burden that diabetes imposes on all people affected by it.
