Unfortunately Diabulimia is for Real
June 19th, 2007 by Steve
Our colleague Barbara Anderson was recently interviewed for CNN on line about diabetic
bulimia. I spoke with her about this last week regarding 2 of my teen girls doing this.
Check out the story at CNN.
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June 19th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Dr. Barbara Anderson has helped me with the management of a number of young ladies with Diabulimia in my pediatric diabetes practice. This is a real problem, but not a new one. We now know that its long term consequences are devastating, thanks to the research of Dr. Anderson on the outcomes of these young adults with diabetes. Expertise in this condition is hard to find. There is a pressing need for the ADA to come forth with expert guidelines for the proper management and treatment of this condition.
June 19th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
While “diabulemia” may exist, but not one report has been able to quantify how widespread this condition is (or isn’t), and I suspect that may be because not even the CDC can accurately quantify the number of patients with type 1 diabetes exist. I suspect strongly that it may make news headlines, yet the reality is that it impacts such a small number that the quantity would not even be considered statistically significant. FYI, the ADA and the CDC’s estimates on the number of type 1 patients are estimates which are based on the NHANES studies, but the survey does not ask respondents what type of diabetes they have, rather it derives the data based on the number of people who use insulin exclusively to treat their condition … hardly accurate or quantitative. As for diabulemia, while parents should be aware of the issue, I hardly think the problem is as widespread as the media are implying, but until they bother to quantify it, we’ll never know.
June 19th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Scott, the research indicates that one in three women engage in inuslin ommision for weight control (see the work of Barbara Anderson and Bill Polonsky from the mid-1990’s). It is an insidious problem and very much under-diagnosed and even harder to treat. I have several patients with this condition.
June 20th, 2007 at 12:18 am
The power of the Internet is so clear from this dialogue. No way that the news report would or could capture all of the important information. Through the blog forum we can get the facts out and bypass the media filter. Very cool.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Diabulemia is a real condition. I suffer from it as well as many others. I have posted about it before, back in January 2006, on my own blog here is the direct link to the post: http://www.diabetestalkfest.com/blog/index.php?s=diabulemia and message board , http://www.diabetestalkfest.com/forum
I think its great that the media wants to acknowledge this problem. It is a silent killer and especially in teens it can be a real problem down the line if the parents dont even know its happening. They should be aware of the warning signs of Diabulemia.
June 20th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I work on a National American Diabetes Association committee with Dr. Barbara Anderson. Two weeks ago in Atlanta, during a meeting of the our Youth Information and Resources Subcommittee, I asked her to consider directing a team of recognized experts in Diabulimia (of which she is one of the best) to craft a consensus statement for health care providers who see persons with type 1 diabetes who are suffering from Diabulimia. She said there was no position by the ADA at this time and my response to her was that it was about time there should be one. We made that suggestion to the ADA Office in Virginia, but I’m not sure how long it will take (maybe quite a while)before it percolates up the beaureaucracy. Providers need guidelines for how to best diagnosis and help the persons struggling with this problem. Failure to do so can mean serious disability or even death within a few years!