Chris wrote in message ...

  The technique which I learned, totally by accident is:

  a.  Learn quite a bit about Type 2 diabetes

  b.  Swing into a long, involved, passionate lecture about the topic as
soon as they bring it up.

            i.   Be sure to mention how much risk they face and offer to
test them
           ii.   Mention the disparity in research funding for diabetes and
other diseases
                       a.  If it is a woman,  mention the disparity between
breast cancer research funding and diabetes funding
                       b.  If it is a man,  mention the serious health risk
of the male-type pot belly and its tendency to cause Insulin Resistance
which in turn can cause heart attack with no warning!
                       c.  Mention that your health risks are identified
and thus you are eligible for life-saving drugs. . .however,  their risks
are not
                       d.  If they are Democrats,  mention that the
Democrats have "screwed" up the govt health initiatives in this area
                       e.  If they are Republicans, mention that the
Republicans have "screwed" up the govt health initiatives in this area

          iii.  Mention that Native Americans are especially susceptible to
T2.  Therefore,  we need to provide more funding for this aspect of the
disease.

 The details aren't too important,  the involved passionate lecture is
important.

Regards
 Old Al

How do you deal with the constant stream of supposedly
sympathetic support offered by friends and family when
they learn that you have diabetes, and proceed to lecture
you about how it's your own fault for eating like a pig
for all these years?

I'm 42, 5'9" and 180, and I'm supposed to be losing 39-40 lbs,
but I'm still thinner than most of them. And none of them exercise
at all - they just sit on their couches and watch TV.  I don't go
to the gym, but I am a little bit active: I teach dance several
nights a week, and I also go out and do pretty aerobic dancing
each weekend.  (Of course, now with this condition, I also go
for a walk every day for at least a mile or two.)
It just doesn't seem fair, and I have never once ever
criticized their utterly sedentary lifestyles!

Besides, don't they remember who I was eating all those dinners
with for the last 20 years?

Some of them also insist on giving me bizarre advice, such as not
to drink diet sodas because that is one of the causes of diabetes.

They never raise their voices when criticizing my condition;
they offer it by way of sympathetic explanation.   But I can
hear the deadly accusations in their tone.

I'm a native American on my mother's side, and my father's mother
had diabetes, and my thin sister had diabetes, and so I tend to
think that I have a genetic predisposition for the disease.

But they can't accept that, and just harp on me about what a
fat pig I've been and now I'm getting the consequences.

I wish there were some way to get them to stop.
I feel bad enough already.