• Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    One I would add to this (though it has never affected me) is diabetes insipidus.

    Biggest misconception about this (and doctors don’t help here at all) is it must be another name for type one or type two diabetes because we always hear “there are two types”. Nope, it’s totally sovereign.

    Another misconception is it’s one of those rare things. Literally anyone can develop it as a result of a side effect of super common medications such as lithium and a few vaccines that are fortunately no longer in circulation.

    And a third is it’s not serious. It’s incredibly serious. Imagine all those misconceptions you hear about diabetes and sugar and apply it to water instead of sugar. Scares me to think about it.

    • zeppo@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Good note, that’s another one that’s totally different. Diabetes was originally named for a large flow of urine, which is the connection I guess, but insipidus doesn’t have the connection to high blood glucose. Type 1 and type 2 are Diabetes Mellitus, named for the urine smelling sweet (like honey, ooh!) from the sugar expelled in it. The kind I have is also called Type 1.5, but it’s more like type 1. There’s also an even more rare kind, similar to type 1, called MODY, which is purely genetic.

        • zeppo@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Yes, the autoimmune pancreatic deficiency ones should be split off from type 2. Insipidus should just be called something totally different. That’s a recurring conversation on T1 discussion groups. People ask things like “were you really fat as a kid? Did you like, just eat so much sugar you got diabetes?” and no, I was 5’11" and 130 lbs when I was diagnosed.

          Have

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Definitely agreed on people not knowing what diabetes insipidus is. If my wife did not have medication for it, she would likely dehydrate and die unless she had a constant source of water.