Browsing Tag

Inspirational

People With Diabetes

Power of Prevention

The annual convention of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists — those medical specialists who treat diabetes — is underway in Houston. I’m covering the event for The Health Central Network.

The convention took over the George R. Brown Convention Center in the downtown of America’s fourth largest city. The convention center is so big that after Hurricane Katrina 7,000 refugees lived here.

In the mob of today’s convention you might imagine my surprise that the first person I made eye contact with asked if I was David Mendosa. The person who asked was Sarah Senn, who I had sent several photos for an article that she wrote about me. But we had never previously met in person.
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Psychosocial

Shameless

Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?

Most of us can still remember those words of admonishment from our mothers years ago. And many of us berate our kids with that phrase now.

When what we do is bad — when we violate the Golden Rule — the innate sense of shame that all normal people have can lead us back to ethical behavior. This normal human emotion can bring us to maturity in our actions.

But many of us are ashamed of who we are or the diseases we have. We feel shame about the physical condition of our bodies.
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Psychosocial

Experiencing Life Fully

A character in a Woody Allen play says, “It’s not that I am afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Until recently those were my sentiments exactly.

But I have just begun to realize how my whole life has revolved around experiencing it. Since death is the final experience, I do want to be there when it happens.

A friend of mine, Jeff, who is working on an advanced degree, interviewed me last month. After reading my online autobiography, he structured the interview around how much my life has changed — how much I have experienced. I’ve always made sure to do interesting things — maybe because I have never thought of myself as being an interesting person.
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