The public's perception about diabetes may be a little off, suggest medical experts looking at the blitz of media coverage about Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who has the disease.
Shortly before the announcement May 26 that federal appeals court Judge Sotomayor, 54, who was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 8, would be President Obama's pick for the next Supreme Court justice, articles about her type 1 diabetes and whether it would hamper her ability to do the job began circulating. After the nomination was official, stories on the topic and debate continued.
The flurry suggests that Americans harbor a lot of questions as well as myths about the disease, says endocrinologist Robert Rizza, executive dean for research at the Mayo Clinic, who notes that sometimes even diabetics think they can't continue to aim high when they're first diagnosed.
Rizza was among other diabetes experts who commented on the topic while attending the American Diabetes Association's 69th Annual Scientific Sessions in New Orleans this past weekend.
"I think the reaction to Sotomayor says diabetes is still a mystery to most people. They think, "I don't know what this disease is, but I know it's not good," Rizza says.
Misconceptions range from whether having diabetes makes a person too sickly to work to concerns that taking multiple medications may interfere with job responsibilities.
"From my personal experience, having lived an awfully long time with diabetes, I've certainly had my share of ignorant remarks made," says Ann Albright, 50, director of the Division of Diabetes Translation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has had type 1 diabetes since she was 9.
Albright says one person once suggested to her that people with diabetes should not be able to reproduce.
"People say ignorant things because they don't really understand the disease," she says.
People's perceptions of diabetes may still be stuck back in the 1960s, says Mayo Clinic's Rizza.
The day of thick insulin needles and glucose testing at the hospital are gone, says endocrinologist Richard Furlanetto, medical director of Quest Diagnostics' Nichols Institute and former scientific director for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
New tools include small insulin needles, easy-to-use blood sugar test strips, glucose monitors worn on the body that continually check blood sugar levels, insulin pumps that do away with the need for daily injections, and the hemoglobin A1C blood test that gives a two- to three-month picture of a person's average blood glucose level and helps determine risk for long-term problems.
"People aren't aware of the strides that have been made in diabetes care and how, with appropriate monitoring, lifestyle and treatment, people with diabetes can live very healthy lives," Furlanetto says.
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