ARE YOU DIABETIC? I am and so are 23.6 million other people. Included in that group are 5.7 million that have diabetes but they do not know it, because they have never been diagnosed. Are you one of the 5.7 million? It is a good idea to have a complete physical at least once a year and ask the doctor to test for diabetes. If your diagnosis is positive, the sooner you begin learning about diabetes and how to manage the disease the better, because, it is a disease that you can learn to manage.

How do most people react to being told that they are diabetic? Three common emotions are denial, anger and guilt. Many people are angry and ask , "Why me?" Some folks feel guilty thinking that they caused this disease by bad eating habits. Denial takes several forms; the doctor was wrong, the tests were incorrect, just to mention a few.

My denial came in the form of an attitude of "I don't care. I will just go right on living like I want to because I am going to die sometime anyway. At least I will die happy eating whatever I want to, and anytime I want." BAD attitude. This can have very disastrous results. I will explain exactly what I mean later.

What should your attitude be?