Oprah to discuss diabetes on Thursday's show
On Thursday, Oprah and Dr. Oz will be discussing diabetes. The title of the show is "America's Silent Killer: Oprah and Dr. Oz Want to Save Your Life."
Dr. Oz is here with an emergency wake-up call. Then, Dr. Ian Smith, Bob Greene and chef Art Smith on how to stop America's silent killer: diabetes.
Now, I like Oprah, and I really respect Dr. Oz, but I am wary of what will be said on this episode. I hope they clearly communicate the differences between type 1 and type 2--like how type 1 is not preventable and how very stressful and difficult it is to manage. I am worried that it will simply be a discussion of obesity and will cause more confusion about type 1 diabetes.
Oprah does not have a great track record for accurately covering medical issues. Remember how she "blew out" her thyroid from working too hard?
Some articles to chew on:
"Oprah's Bad Medicine" Salon.com, May 15, 2009
"Live Your Best Life Ever!" Newsweek, May 30, 2009
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Pauly on -
I agree with you this is exploitation of a person for ratings getting a celebrity on and then shocking her and the audience.
On the flip side Dr Bernstein and others want a persons fasting blood sugar at around 83 fasting. Dr Bernstein would tell her the same thing as Dr Oz however he is even more conservative and would have told her she is diabetic as he doesn't believe in pre- diabetes.
In my own journey I wish my doctor would have told me the same thing when I was hovering around 117 for many years and I trusted the doctor and never gave a thought to it.
Now how many can achieve 83 BG for fasting, probably few in the population in their 30's- and up. Thanks for the video link.
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Permalink Reply by HFXNS on -
As I type 1 diabetic, I cannot imagine being upset about a blood sugar of 100 mg/dl (5.5 mmol/l)! To me, that's as good as it gets. I just don't get what Dr. Oz was saying!
To the non-diabetic, hearing him say "your blood sugar is 100!" sounds bad, because 100 is a high number, but they don't know that that's a good result.
Imagine if the show was Canadian, and her blood sugar actually was bad: "Your blood sugar is 15!" Doesn't sound so bad, until you realize that 15 mmol/l is 270 mg/dl.
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Permalink Reply by Bradford on -
I think that's a little over dramatic (but isn't that what Dr. Oz and Oprah do most of the time? ;-)
In the medical community, any sort of fasting BG that is between 100-125 is considered pre-diabetes. Anything 126 and above is considered diabetes. A person without diabetes should usually stay under 100, and especially if what Dr. Oz measured was a fasting GTT.
Here is the criteria from WHO about a diagnosis of diabetes:
1999 WHO Diabetes criteria (I can't get this chart to copy right, so here's the format:)
Condition
2 hour glucose
Fasting glucose
mmol/l(mg/dl) mmol/l(mg/dl)
Normal
<7.8 (<140)
<6.1 (<110)
Impaired fasting glycaemia
<7.8 (<140)
≥ 6.1(≥110) & <7.0(<126)
Impaired glucose tolerance
≥7.8 (≥140)
<7.0 (<126)
Diabetes mellitus
≥11.1 (≥200)
≥7.0 (≥126)
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Permalink Reply by HFXNS on
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Yes, so her glucose (possibly fasting, we don't know), which was 5.5 mmol/l (100 mg/dl), puts her in the "normal" group because it is less than 6.1 mmol/l (110 mg/dl).
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Permalink Reply by Bradford on
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I completely agree. I'm not saying that Dr. Oz is right (or wrong), I was only pointing out that some in the medical community use the 100-126 'pre-diabetes' scale (not the WHO scale that I also listed).
As with any of these items, it's relative to the person. For example the different 'camps' of A1c levels (7.5 is fine vs. those who say under 7 or even under 6.5, etc).
Should Dr. Oz have been so hellfire and brimstone with her saying, "Oh my God you're going to die in 5 seconds if you don't change your ways!"? Probably not. That's how he gets his ratings I suppose :-) I also don't know her other medical factors (as I had only watched the clip that was provided) that may have caused his 'alarm' i.e. cholesterol, sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits, other autoimmune disease presence that would increase her risk of diabetes, etc etc.
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Permalink Reply by Pauly on
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I agree Bradford with your post. It does make for dramatic television and that is what they are looking for.
With the number of reality shows exploiting people no matter what ails them it is sickening and is a sad commentary on television.
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Permalink Reply by Gerri on -
JT,
Normal BG is what Dr. Bernstein has been advocating for decades. Agree that expectations aren't high enough. Realize that this is a lofty goal & very difficult to attain, but people are told by medical professionals that higher BG is acceptable. Look at what the ADA recommends as a good A1c. Of course since they recommend high carb meals, they have to also endorse a higher A1c.
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Permalink Reply by Brian (bsc) on
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And actually, Dr. B is even stronger in his position on this. According to Dr. B, since we now have the means to enable any diabetic to attain "normal" blood sugars, as a diabetic, you have a "right" to normal blood sugars. It is ethically wrong for a doctor to deny you that right.
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Permalink Reply by Kelly Rawlings on -
What?! Does Dr. B have some kind of free secret artificial pancreas or free medical care or something? Apparently he's not sharing it if so. Otherwise, I'm not sure what he's talking about with "we now have the means."
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Permalink Reply by elaine peterson on -
Perhaps by "means," he means medical wisdom....that has worked for him and others that are able to follow his advice. Being a MD himself, does give him certain access and "means," also, I'd imagine, but he does seem to genuinely care about helping us so I'm going with knowledge.
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Permalink Reply by Brian (bsc) on
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I think Dr. B believes if you follow his advice, you should be able to achieve "normalized" blood sugars with an HbA1c below 5%. But what he really means is that these techniques are available and that doctors should not deny any patient an opportunity to have normal blood sugars. You should not told you can't have access to insulin (or modern insulins), you can't test, you can't use medication, you can't pump and you can't use a CGMS because normalizing your blood sugar is wrong. Being denied the means to normalize your blood sugar, given that you can afford the treatment is ethically wrong.
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Permalink Reply by Shannon on -
I think Kelly's point was that even with all of the tools we have available, even by eating correctly, taking our insulin correctly, exercising, etc., it is still extremely difficult to achieve "normal" blood sugars. It's a lot of work simply getting an A1c down in the 6s, never mind getting under 5%.
While Dr. B's advice is fantastic, there are still lots of unknown variables that affect our blood sugar. Without a working pancreas, we will never achieve "normal" blood sugars, in my opinion.
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