Living Long with Diabetes
Those who've succeeded made commitment to take care of themselves

(HealthDay News) -- People diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in childhood can still lead long and active lives -- and the proof can be seen in the many people who've done it.

Bob Cleveland of Syracuse, N.Y., is in his late 80s and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1925, but he has enjoyed a full, rewarding life that's included a long career as an accountant at General Motors, raising a family and pursuing mountain climbing and other outdoor adventures.

"He amazes me," his wife, Ruth Cleveland, said. "He's still able to take care of the yard, even drive a 32-foot motor home to Florida -- and he does it well," she told HealthDay .

Alan Lewis is in his early 70s and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 69 years ago. The professor emeritus of oceanography at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver has spent most of his life as a competitive swimmer.

"Yes, diabetes is something you have to deal with, but it's just another part of your life," Lewis told HealthDay .

Type 1 diabetes, which typically begins in childhood, is linked to an inability of insulin-producing cells to do their job. People with the disease face a lifetime of blood glucose monitoring and insulin supplementation. Both tasks are easier now than they were in the 1930s and 1940s when it was common to have incidents of sugar levels dropping so low that a person with diabetes might slip into a coma.

"When you talk to the elderly with diabetes who have gotten to live to today, they have lived through a time and place when we really couldn't take care of diabetes very well," Dr. Larry Deeb, a past president for medicine and science at the American Diabetes Association, told HealthDay .

"However, even then, they made the commitment to take care of themselves. They reviewed their urine glucose, they took their insulin every day, they watched their diet and were active," Deeb said.

"It takes a huge commitment to take care of yourself with diabetes, to mind it every day," he noted. "There's never a day off."

Many elderly diabetics say managing their diabetes quickly became routine.

"I think I was so focused on what was of interest to me in my life that diabetes was simply something I got used to," Lewis said. "It became just a hurdle I needed to go through to get someplace."

Turning diabetes into an asset is one reason why many older diabetics have lived so long, said Dr. Sheri Colberg, an exercise physiologist in Virginia Beach, Va., who's done extensive research on diabetes, longevity and lifestyle, and wrote a book called 50 Secrets of the Longest Living People with Diabetes . She has type 1 diabetes.

"I actually had some people who told me, 'Diabetes saved my life,'" Colberg told HealthDay . "They said to themselves, 'If I don't do this, I am going to die sooner.' They used diabetes as an incentive to adopt a healthier lifestyle, better eating patterns. And to stay physically healthy -- every one of them was physically active."

Lewis and Cleveland agree that physical activity is important.

"I've always been more of an outdoor person and more interested in exercise, games, swimming, things like that," Bob Cleveland told HealthDay . "They were definitely advantageous for a diabetic."

On the Web

To learn more about type 1 diabetes, check out information from the American Academy of Family Physicians.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Bob and Ruth Cleveland, Syracuse, N.Y.; Alan Lewis, Ph.D., Vancouver, Canada; Larry Deeb, M.D., past president for medicine and science, American Diabetes Association, Tallahassee, Fla.; Sheri Colberg, Ph.D., exercise physiologist and author, Virginia Beach, Va.
Author: Robert Preidt
Publication Date: Nov. 30, 2008
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