Abbrevs.   (January 12, 2008)

I must apologize to the newcomers; I occasionally use abbreviations that people might not recognize: for example, PWD (people with diabetes) and T1DM (type 1 diabetes) and T2DM (type 2 diabetes). Obviously, abbreviations and acronyms are helpful to save space (and to avoid carpal tunnel syndome for us who are typing our thoughts), but they sure can be puzzling, especially when the same abbreviation can mean different things:

ADA = American Diabetes Association
ADA = American Dietetic Association
ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act
ADA = American Dental Association

...and a few more. Before you GoGoogling to find the other ADAs, guess which of the above is ranked highest at Google: I was completely wrong in my guess!

The meaning of some abbreviations are even less apparent:

INH = Isoniazid hydrochloride (a drug for people with TB)
INH = Inhaled insulin (a possible route of administering insulin for PWD).

And sometime the "experts" can't decide what an abbreviation stands for; for instance,

LADA might stand for "Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults" or "Late-onset Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood", and

MODY might be "Maturity onset diabetes of the young" or "Mutation-Originated Diabetes in the Young".

And, for a laugh, NPH ("Neutral Protamine Hagedorn") insulin has also been called "not particularly helpful".

It's enough 2MAGMC (to make a grown man cry).