Focus groups held by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) reveal cancer and heart disease are considered much more severe than diabetes. This is no surprise to me. As a daughter and sister of two brothers and both parents with type 1 diabetes, I've heard this attitude spouted from many friends and acquaintances. Their logic goes something like this, "Since insulin has been discovered to treat type 1, there's not a problem, right? I mean, people used to die from diabetes before insulin."

Wrong. Many people are still dying thanks to type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and they're facing serious, horrible complications living with the disease. Now the ADA is changing their communication strategy to acknowledge the deadly consequences of the disease, reports the New York Times.

According to chief executive Larry Hausner, the term 'deadly' was a potentially controversial word over at the ADA. However beginning in 2009, the organization is adding 'deadly' to their prevention and hope message. People sure do need to take this disease seriously, whether it's type 1, type 2, gestational or pre-diabetes. If you'd like to read more of my personal thoughts on this topic, check out a post I just wrote over at Trusera, a new and growing online health network where you can find health answers from real people and share your personal experience in return.