Diabetes Matters - online subscriptions are no longer available Autumn 2016 | Page 26

Diabetes WA:
Be the

Captain

Advocating on
your Behalf

Dr Joe Kosterich
www.drjoe.net.au

C

ars roll off production lines
all the same. All those of a
given make and model will run on
the same fuel, the same lubricant
and will have the same servicing
requirements.
People are similar but not the same.
We don’t come off production lines.
What suits one person is not always
suitable for the next.
And this is where it can get confusing
for people with diabetes. There is a lot of
advice out there and it can get presented
as fact when in reality it is someone’s
opinion.
One thing I have learned over the years
in medicine is that you cannot argue with
someone’s personal experience.
If some dietary change or medication
or other intervention has made you feel
better then you feel better. The catch is
that the same approach may not work for
everyone else.
This is why randomized trials are done,
and they aim to sort out what really
does work. But even here it is not
absolute. For any medication there
will be a percentage of people where it
does not work or where side effects are
a significant problem even if the vast
majority do benefit.
This means that as an individual you
need to take advice and apply it in the
setting of your own body. See dietary
guidelines as just that, guidelines not a
rigid dictate. Find what foods and eating
patterns work for you within the broader
ideas that the guidelines suggest. Find the
exercise that most suits you.
With medications be prepared to talk to
your doctor about change if they are not
working or causing side effects. There are
many to choose from.

26

A

s the peak body and voice for diabetes in Western Australia, we feel it
is our responsibility to advocate on behalf of the diabetes community
and ensure the rights of people living with the condition are upheld. We take
advocacy seriously and work hard to promote greater community equality,
acceptance and support of people with diabetes, create freedom from negative
stigma and eliminate discrimination.

As 2015 drew to a close, a news headline titled ‘Diabetes on the rise as idea of
sporting nation dies’ in The West Australian caught our attention. The opening
sentence reads ‘Young and middle-aged men and women are getting fatter as the
country struggles to deal with an explosion in the number of people with diabetes’,
portraying diabetes as one single condition that develops YH