OK, seriously, how many of you out there ever really thought you could use the terms “diabetes education” and “fun” in the same sentence?

I hear you. Those wiseacres of you out there are saying something like, “Sure. Easy. ‘Diabetes education is anything but fun.’” You know that’s not what I meant. What I meant was how often has diabetes education, or any educational stuff about any health topic, ever really been fun?

You know how it is. Diabetes education almost always involves some dry pamphlet or a long, boring book with way too many facts and far too many ultra-big words. They’re usually far, far too long and most times – come on, admit it – you either fall asleep before you finish the first page or you put it down with the unkept promise to get back to it after the headache it gave you goes away.

What’s that? Did I hear someone mention computers and video? You’re right; there’s a slew of medical information to be found online. There’s lots of videos, too, YouTube or otherwise.

The problem with most Internet-based diabetes edcuation is that it’s basically just those same old boring pamphlets and books made digital. Almost all reliable sites from “quality” sources simply use that same boring, too complicated, and too wordy information that someone simply turned into electons to beam out over the Web. All the same stuff, just no paper.

That method of turning boring paper content into boring digital content is pretty generalizable to all “quality” health sites. Of course, there are oodles of less-than-reliable websites out there promoting snake oil and healing waters from the fountain of youth. Even if they are less boring than the reliable sites – and they rarely are – their information isn’t worth the server space they waste.

And diabetes education videos? Well, how many white-coated, talking head doctors does it take before you get bored with “talking at you” lectures that are supposed to be more fun because they’re videos AND because they’re on the Internet? Don’t most people get droopy-eyed during non-interactive, in-person lectures? I know I do and I find it even more of a snoozer over the computer. I’m betting a lot of you do, too.

When it comes to diabetes education, it can be especially difficult because diabetes covers a whole lot of medical ground. I remember one med school prof telling us that if you can learn everything there is to know about diabetes, you’ll have learned just about everything there is to know about medicine. That’s because diabetes impacts just about every system in the body in some way or another. Who has the time, or the brain power, to learn “everything there is to know about medicine”? Who could even stay awake through all that?

Does diabetes education require an absence of fun? No way!

Does being entertained mean you can’t also be learning? Nope, again.

At Health Nuts Media, we think diabetes education (and all health-related education) can be far better than it has ever been – far more engaging, far more useful, and FAR more fun. By combining the two worlds of health education and entertainment, we’ve created health education that is truly unique.

Our not-so-secret sauce is simple, but mastery of the recipe is quite challenging. We take very complicated concepts, break them into “bite-size” portions, dice the “doctor-ese” into regular “people-ese”, and then stir in high quality stories, fun, and animation designed by entertainment experts to serve up delicious animated videos, games, and apps that kids – and adults – enjoy.

We don’t think you need to learn it all; you need to learn some. If we can help you enjoy learning some of the basics, then maybe you’ll find it easier to tackle harder, more in depth info – without getting one of those headaches I mentioned above. And, since we help you do it in “easily digested bites”, you won’t get “health education indigestion”, either!

Try a taste test of our series, “Understanding Diabetes“, and you’ll see what I mean when I say that the terms “diabetes education” and “fun” can go together, quite nicely.
 

Dr. Gregg
Posted – March 13, 2012