World Diabetes Day aka cue JOKES ... ??

So I'm doing my early morning google preparing to tweet, pin, FB and so on, and realise it's World Diabetes Day. I suppose I should have known, truth be told, given that I've co-written a book featuring the development of the disease resulting from obesity; not to mention that my OH has Type 2 and that itself was possibly triggered by obesity..... but I didn't, and found out this morning. Not long after that I came across some fairly acrimonious postings on Pinterest, to the effect that anyone suggesting sweets and diabetes were connected should go forth and multiply. Well it's not fair or true to say that eating sweets causes Diabetes (either Type 1 or 2). And as some were accurately highlighting, Type 1 is not 'caused' by any outside factors. And as some others were accurately saying, not all Type 2 is caused by, triggered by, or related to, obesity. BUT - and it's a very big but (and maybe butt) ... eating sweets and other sweet things can be contributory factors to obesity, which in turn is a high risk factor for Type 2 Diabetes. Fact. So why verbally beat up on people referring to Diabetes & sweets? The comments arose out of a diabetes cartoon, which of course couldn't spell out every last if, but, and maybe of how people get it, whether or not their lifestyle has contributed and how much they suffer as a result.....surely comics aren't now to be expected to put caveats into all their scripts? So: prepare to be offended/amused/unaffected in equal measure: Why did the vampire bite the diabetic? Because he had a sweet tooth! Who is the patron saint of diabetics and railway stations? St Pancreas A Diabetic walks into a bakery as asks the guy behind the counter, “Whaddya got that is safe for diabetics?” The Baker says, “Everything. As long as you don’t put it in your mouth.” A police officer pulls over this guy who's been weaving in and out of the lanes. He goes up to the guy's window and says, "Sir, I need you to blow into this breathalyser tube." The man says, "Sorry, officer, I can't do that. I am an asthmatic. If I do that, I'll have a really bad asthma attack." "Okay, fine. I need you to come down to the station to give a blood sample." "I can't do that either. I am a hemophiliac. If I do that, I'll bleed to death." "Well, then, we need a urine sample." "I'm sorry, officer, I can't do that either. I am also a diabetic. If I do that, I'll get really low blood sugar." "All right, then I need you to come out here and walk this white line." "I can't do that, officer." "Why not?" "Because I'm drunk." A woman is terribly overweight, so her doctor puts her on a diet. "I want you to eat regularly for two days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for two weeks. The next time I see you, you'll have lost at least five pounds." When the woman returns, she's lost nearly 20 pounds. "Why, that's amazing!" the doctor says. "Did you follow my instructions?" The woman nods. "I'll tell you, though, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day." "From hunger, you mean?" asked the doctor. "No, from skipping." Apologies to those I've *borrowed* these from - DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) and tudiabetes.org.

Bonzo Dog Dooda...............

Was that a sufficiently stupid post title? Having spent quite a lot of the past four years in company with therapists, I should know better than to feel guilt as it's a pointless emotion, but I feel thoroughly guilty about not keeping this blog up to date. Having recently - well about a fortnight ago, which tells the tale of how bad my procrastinatory tendencies can be - read how important it is to Blog because Google and other search engines pick up on newly-amended posts, I figured cometh the hour to pull the proverbial finger from its orifice. TADA! So much has happened it's pretty nigh impossible to do a thorough update but essentially we've within the past week put GMB to bed AND heard they're actually printing, because the new Elite outlet in Bahrain is having its launch in three weeks or so and want copies there .....(where a few Royal shoulders might rub with Martin & Marion, we hear) There's also a new outlet in Denmark, and the bouncy Mie was here in Spain a couple of weeks back. She proved quite handy in the 'brainstorming' department when we were trying to come up with online marketing ploys for (son of GMB) PBT and the PBT Book. We've wangled mention of Prof Philip Zimbardo, he of Time Perspective Theory fame, in the book because he's written a foreword for PBT. So of course since there's a page about the PBT book in GMB, so Prof Z gets a namecheck too! Amazing how important Google, search engines, and other phrases too deep and meaningful relating to social media, have become! I'll post more as and when. Probably the best way........ Ciao for now Fiona