The Cure

The gym is my sanctuary. I go there, put my music on and get lost in my work out. It’s my way of de-stressing. I love my gym. People there are friendly but not overly so. They let you get on with your workout. But of course once in a while you may get the oddball or two. Last week, the universe must have decided that I was due for my once-in-a-while-oddball.

It was Good Friday, I had a “day off” aka work from home day in PhD terms. I had a deadline looming and was looking forward to unwinding at the gym.

As I was putting my bag away and doing my pre-workout BG test, a guy caught my eye and instigated small chatter.

“You come in here a lot and you work out hard,” he commented.

“Oh, thanks!” I replied, slightly chuffed.

“What’s that thing you wear on your arm though?” he quizzed, referring the my Dexcom CGM sensor.

I explained what it did and that I had diabetes, and that’s the cringe began.

“You know there’s an exercise to help cure diabetes!” he said excitedly and proceeded to search for a video of it on his phone.

“I really don’t think there is an exercise to help my pancreas to produce insulin again…” I began and took the opportunity to tell him about the different types of diabetes that existed. He didn’t even know type 1 diabetes existed.

By this point I was ready to start my workout, but he was very persistent to show me this video. Turned out it was a thumb massage to for the thyroid – not even for diabetes. Either way, I politely thanked him for showing me this video and he thanked me for telling him about diabetes and off I went to start my workout.

From the treadmill, while I was warming up, I saw him leave the gym and get into his car. So I assumed that was that. But as I finished my warm up, I noticed him again from the corner of my eye. He had come back in the gym.

I tried to avoid eye contact with him but he came over as I got off the treadmill.

“I was just on the phone to my doctor who specialises in homeopathy. You’ve heard of homeopathy? Yeah. He cured my cholesterol. He says he can cure your diabetes but he needs to know some more information…”

I looked at him with mixed emotions – mostly annoyed that he had interrupted my session. After I had again politely declined multiple times and said that I was fine managing my diabetes, he finally left. But I couldn’t stop thinking about how convinced he was that diabetes could so easily be cured. And it made me really angry.

People are dying because they cannot afford or access medication to manage their diabetes, especially with type 1 diabetes. People are dying because they are being told there is a cure for diabetes and they stop their medication. They are dying because of these scam practitioners who are promising cures.

To these people, diabetes is nothing more than a money maker for them. They don’t care about the people living with the condition. They most certainly aren’t taking your life seriously if they are promising a cure. I doubt many of them would even understand the pathophysiology of the basic types. Diabetes is a serious condition and I wish more people would treat it that way.

Needless to say, I will be avoiding him in the future if I ever do see him again at the gym. /endrant.