AP: Denver's Cutler has diabetes (type 1)

[Angus]

DENVER (AP) Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, his business manager Marty Garafalo confirmed Thursday night.

The 25-year-old Cutler found out about two weeks ago that he was diabetic and needed daily insulin injections, Garafalo told The Associated Press.

He said Cutler was managing his disease and "in no way is his football career jeopardized."

Some 21 million Americans have diabetes, meaning their bodies cannot properly turn blood sugar into energy. Either they don't produce enough insulin or don't use it correctly. With the Type 1 form, the body's immune system attacks insulin-producing pancreatic cells, so that patients require insulin injections to survive.

"It's something that he's dealing with and something a lot of other people have," Garafalo said. "Even though it's a serious condition, it's a condition that can be managed. That's the way he's treating it right now.

"Everything's fine," Garafalo continued. "His condition is fine."

Cutler, entering his third NFL season, threw for 3,497 yards and 20 touchdowns last season after supplanting Jake Plummer with five weeks left in the 2006 season.

The 6-foot-3, 233-pound Cutler was taken by the Broncos with the 11th overall pick of the 2006 draft, becoming the first Vanderbilt player taken in the first round since 1986.

Cutler is expected to address the media on Friday.

Other athletes who have competed with diabetes include Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke, Charlotte Bobcats forward Adam Morrison, golfers Scott Verplank, Michelle McGann and Kelli Kuehne and Olympic swimmer Gary Hall Jr.

http://www.theredzone.org/absolutenm/templates/template.asp?articleid=618&zoneid=1

 

[DominantD]

Wow this is very sad for Jay. I have a 7 year-old daughter who was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 4. Researchers believe a virus can randomly hit any one of us causing our autoimmune system to get confused, then permanently attack our insulin-producing cells in our body. If Jay was diagnosed in 1920, he would have a life expectancy of 1 to 4 years. You'll probably see him become affiliated with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at www.JDRF.org as they are solely focused on finding a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

Jay is putting a positive spin on this and taking a positive approach. But make no mistake. Type 1 Diabetes is way more severe than Type 2 Diabetes. He'll probably have his wife set her alarm to check his blood sugar at midnight and 3am every night for the rest of his life. Why? The risk of sudden blood sugar lows, which are unpredictable can lead to seizure and death, if not promptly attended to. That might seem dramatic but it's unfortunately the every day reality of what he now faces. It just takes one mistake on one night with zero forgiveness and no do-overs. He'll begin counting every carbohydrate he eats at every meal and every snack every day. He'll count every carbohydrate he drinks at every game and every practice. Why, he has to perfectly balance the amount of insulin he gives his body every minute of the day, multiple times per day.

Keep fighting Jay and stay positive! We're going to find a cure for you and all these other children that are being diagnosed every month.

 

[sharph20]

Wow this is very sad for Jay. I have a 7 year-old daughter who was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 4. Researchers believe a virus can randomly hit any one of us causing our autoimmune system to get confused, then permanently attack our insulin-producing cells in our body. If Jay was diagnosed in 1920, he would have a life expectancy of 1 to 4 years. You'll probably see him become affiliated with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at www.JDRF.org as they are solely focused on finding a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

Jay is putting a positive spin on this and taking a positive approach. But make no mistake. Type 1 Diabetes is way more severe than Type 2 Diabetes. He'll probably have his wife set her alarm to check his blood sugar at midnight and 3am every night for the rest of his life. Why? The risk of sudden blood sugar lows, which are unpredictable can lead to seizure and death, if not promptly attended to. That might seem dramatic but it's unfortunately the every day reality of what he now faces. It just takes one mistake on one night with zero forgiveness and no do-overs. He'll begin counting every carbohydrate he eats at every meal and every snack every day. He'll count every carbohydrate he drinks at every game and every practice. Why, he has to perfectly balance the amount of insulin he gives his body every minute of the day, multiple times per day.

Keep fighting Jay and stay positive! We're going to find a cure for you and all these other children that are being diagnosed every month.

I just finished taking an ethics in business class this semester and my group chose JDRF for our presentation about outstanding ethical achievements. I was really impressed with the foundation.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

I wish him the very best and he will be in my prayers.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I am diabetic and there are a few of us on this board. It is not the end of the world. You certainly have to do things differently then other people but treatment of this has come a long, long way.

I cheer the guy because it's not something that should hold anybody back. With the right treatment and life style changes, he can do great things. Heck, it's probably a plus for him that he plays football. The excercise and access he will have to professionals who can help him with his diet will be better then what most can ever hope to have. He's in a good situation from that aspect.

 

[BigWillie]

Wow this is very sad for Jay. I have a 7 year-old daughter who was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 4. Researchers believe a virus can randomly hit any one of us causing our autoimmune system to get confused, then permanently attack our insulin-producing cells in our body. If Jay was diagnosed in 1920, he would have a life expectancy of 1 to 4 years. You'll probably see him become affiliated with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at www.JDRF.org as they are solely focused on finding a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

Jay is putting a positive spin on this and taking a positive approach. But make no mistake. Type 1 Diabetes is way more severe than Type 2 Diabetes. He'll probably have his wife set her alarm to check his blood sugar at midnight and 3am every night for the rest of his life. Why? The risk of sudden blood sugar lows, which are unpredictable can lead to seizure and death, if not promptly attended to. That might seem dramatic but it's unfortunately the every day reality of what he now faces. It just takes one mistake on one night with zero forgiveness and no do-overs. He'll begin counting every carbohydrate he eats at every meal and every snack every day. He'll count every carbohydrate he drinks at every game and every practice. Why, he has to perfectly balance the amount of insulin he gives his body every minute of the day, multiple times per day.

Keep fighting Jay and stay positive! We're going to find a cure for you and all these other children that are being diagnosed every month.

The older you get, the less you need to check your blood sugar levels constantly.

Both my sisters, my aunt and my father all dealt with type 1 diabetes. The older they caught, the easier it was able to control their sugar levels. No more of the constant checking of blood sugar levels or the constant running to the doctors.

You should check into getting your child an insulin pump. It has made the life of my sisters and aunt so much easier. It is also wayyy easier to regulate your insulin levels than the constant shots.

It may be a stretch for your 4 year old to understand how to properly understand how to use the pump, as they teach a class on just how to use the thing. But with your help, it may be an idea.

It's definitely something you should look into.

As far as Cutler, it will be no big deal. Guys like Adam Morrison and a MLB pitcher (guys name is skipping my mind) have played with diabetes with little or no problem.

Just as long as Cutler continues to properly take his insulin and always make sure to go to his scheduled doctor appointments, he will still live the same long and healthy life.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

There are ways other than using insulin and/or other medications to regulate or even cure yourself of diabetes.

Anyone know what I am referring to?

 

[PJTHEDOORS]

The older you get, the less you need to check your blood sugar levels constantly.

Both my sisters, my aunt and my father all dealt with type 1 diabetes. The older they caught, the easier it was able to control their sugar levels. No more of the constant checking of blood sugar levels or the constant running to the doctors.

You should check into getting your child an insulin pump. It has made the life of my sisters and aunt so much easier. It is also wayyy easier to regulate your insulin levels than the constant shots.

It may be a stretch for your 4 year old to understand how to properly understand how to use the pump, as they teach a class on just how to use the thing. But with your help, it may be an idea.

It's definitely something you should look into.

As far as Cutler, it will be no big deal. Guys like Adam Morrison and a MLB pitcher (guys name is skipping my mind) have played with diabetes with little or no problem.

Just as long as Cutler continues to properly take his insulin and always make sure to go to his scheduled doctor appointments, he will still live the same long and healthy life.

Well, not in my case. I have a severe case of Type 1. Not all diabetics are the same in terms of their blood sugar levels and what is a normal range. My range is between 160-180. And it is very hard to keep it on an even keel, especially when I am sleeping. Anything over 180 and I get massive headaches (with the body pain that goes with high blood sugar). Below 160 then that is when I get disoriented and the shakes. I have such a tolerance for low blood sugar, so at night I may seem fine, but my sugar could drop to well below 100 and I wouldn't feel any change right away. The problem with diabetes, is the sugar level can drop so sudden and fast (as has been stated here). Then you get confused and if you don't get something to drink or eat soon enough, unconsciousness hits and soon seizures.

I have to constantly monitor my blood levels. As for diabetic athletes, the running and excercise alone will drop their blood sugar.

 

[DominantD]

There are ways other than using insulin and/or other medications to regulate or even cure yourself of diabetes.

Anyone know what I am referring to?

For some forms of Type 2 diabetes, yes. For Type 1 diabetes, no. With type 2, the pancreas produces less quality or sometimes faulty insulin... so treatments vary depending on the severity. With type 1, the pancreas effectively produces zero insulin because it is an autoimmune condition where the autoimmune kills the beta cells before they produce any insulin. Thus, with type 1, you can't "regulate" the insulin because it is no longer there to regulate. Thus, an insulin pump or shots are the only way to balance every carbohydrate that enters your body.

BigWillie: Thank you for your note. Yes, my daughter is on the pump and it is a fantastic technology that has really improved her care. I'd assume Jay Cutler will look into the pump but take off his pump during games.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

For some forms of Type 2 diabetes, yes. For Type 1 diabetes, no. With type 2, the pancreas produces less quality or sometimes faulty insulin... so treatments vary depending on the severity. With type 1, the pancreas effectively produces zero insulin because it is an autoimmune condition where the autoimmune kills the beta cells before they produce any insulin. Thus, with type 1, you can't "regulate" the insulin because it is no longer there to regulate. Thus, an insulin pump or shots are the only way to balance every carbohydrate that enters your body.

BigWillie: Thank you for your note. Yes, my daughter is on the pump and it is a fantastic technology that has really improved her care. I'd assume Jay Cutler will look into the pump but take off his pump during games.

Ahh... I see.
I thought that may be the case. Thanks.

Do you follow the newest advances in biochemistry, cell therapy.... and in the future.... nanotechnology?

Thats where its going.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

I was recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Only reason I knew something was up was that I had dry mouth all the time and was peeing every 2 hours. Always thirsty and always peeing. Even in the middle of the night. Those were good times.

I'm taking Janumet at the moment and that seems to have fixed it.

 

[DominantD]

Here's some more about Cutler. He had lost 30+ pounds and was losing strength in the weight room.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/nfl/2008/05/02/Cutler-Diabetes-0/

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Jay Cutler realizes he should have recognized something was wrong last season when lost 35 pounds and some zip on his famous fastballs.

"I had no energy," the Denver Broncos' third-year quarterback said Friday. "We thought it might be stress and the grind of going through a whole season. But once I got back here and started working out again, I just wasn't making any improvement. I wasn't getting any stronger. I was still losing weight."

Routine blood tests that are required before players participate in the team's off-season strength and conditioning program revealed the answer: His sugars were about five times higher than normal.

The 25-year-old quarterback met with doctors last month, who told him he's an insulin-dependent diabetic. He got a crash course in the disease and its ramifications if uncontrolled.

"It's a little overwhelming to get that news and realize you're going to have to completely change your life," said Cutler, who accepted his fate after a few days.

"It's not something that's going to go away," Cutler said. "It's something I'm going to have to deal with my entire life and you've got to come to grips with that."

He said he never worried about his career being in jeopardy.

"No. That's the first thing they said to me: 'It's going to affect your lifestyle a little bit, but you'll be able to continue to play football,"' Cutler said. "I'm not the first athlete to get diabetes and I won't be the last."

Other professional athletes who dealt with diabetes and had successful careers include NFL quarterback Wade Wilson; tennis stars Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King, Olympic swimmer Gary Hall Jr., NHL star Bobby Clarke, baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb and boxing greats Joe Frazier and Sugar Ray Robinson.

As long as Cutler manages his disease through exercise, medication and diet, there's no medical reason he wouldn't be able to continue performing at the NFL level. He'll have to monitor his blood glucose levels during games and drink some Gatorade if his sugars drop too low or take a shot of insulin if they skyrocket.

"I've got a lot of people watching me," Cutler said. "It's not going to affect me on the field. I'm going to make changes off the field, eating and stuff like that."

About 21 million Americans have diabetes, meaning their bodies cannot properly turn blood sugar into energy. Either they don't produce enough insulin or don't use it correctly. With the Type 1 form that Cutler has, the body's immune system attacks insulin-producing pancreatic cells, so that patients require insulin injections to survive. It usually, but not always, strikes in childhood.

The six-foot-three Cutler said he dropped from 238 pounds to 203 by season's end but is back up to 220 since beginning insulin injections after he was diagnosed last month.

"I've felt great. I've felt 100 times better," he said. "Just a difference now and four, five weeks ago is tremendous. It's hard to explain what you feel like when your levels are at 400, 500, it's different. You don't have any energy, you don't really want to do anything, you sleep a lot. It's tough to deal with."

Cutler said he had all the classic signs of diabetes: unexplained weight loss, frequent urination, constant thirst, lack of energy. Without a family history of the disease, though, he never suspected that was the culprit.

Cutler, the 11th pick in the 2006 draft, threw for nearly 3,500 yards and 20 touchdowns last season but the Broncos missed the playoffs for a second straight year. It was obvious as the season wore on that his arm strength wasn't what it was his rookie year, when he started the final five weeks of the season.

"I'm not going to blame it on that, but thinking back, there were some throws that didn't have a lot on them," Cutler said. "I was able to go out and perform, I just wasn't that energetic. I was tired. After the games, I was completely wiped out. Some games I didn't do a whole lot. There was something wrong."

In the weight room, he couldn't lift as much, and when he and teammates Brandon Marshall and Tony Scheffler gathered in Atlanta over the winter to work out together, Cutler said there were times he couldn't get out of bed in the morning he was so exhausted.

"They would ask me what was up and I would say, 'I don't know. I'm just so tired,"' Cutler recalled. When he went back to campus to visit friends at Vanderbilt, they, too, wondered what was wrong: "I was pale, I was skinny, I couldn't run. It was pretty dramatic."

Now, he feels like a million bucks and he's eager to get into practices and exhibitions to see how his body reacts and how he can keep his blood sugars in control during competition.

As for his changes in diet, no more eating, as he put it, "anything and everything."

"It's a big adjustment," Cutler said. "You're 25 years old, you're used to eating whatever you want, doing whatever you want. If you want to go out to lunch, go ahead and go. Now, you're counting carbs and eating healthier and injecting insulin at the table. You've got to have your insulin, your needles, your glucose meter, yeah, it's a big change. But it's something you have to deal with."

Eating less fast food is a silver lining to his diagnosis, said Cutler, who is looking into getting an insulin pump in the next month and plans to expand his charity work to include juvenile diabetes.

He also wants fans to know he's going to be all right.

"This is a serious, serious disease, and I'm going to have it for the rest of my life," Cutler said. "It's not going to change me on the field. I'm going to have some lifestyle changes, but I'm probably going to be a better quarterback this year than I was last year."

 

[JonJon]

I hope nobody gets offended, but I always thought this commercial was funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILIvPzyK_8I&feature=related

 

[Clarkson]

Huge fan of Jay, hope all is well with him. He's tough, though.

 

[BigWillie]

Well, not in my case. I have a severe case of Type 1. Not all diabetics are the same in terms of their blood sugar levels and what is a normal range. My range is between 160-180. And it is very hard to keep it on an even keel, especially when I am sleeping. Anything over 180 and I get massive headaches (with the body pain that goes with high blood sugar). Below 160 then that is when I get disoriented and the shakes. I have such a tolerance for low blood sugar, so at night I may seem fine, but my sugar could drop to well below 100 and I wouldn't feel any change right away. The problem with diabetes, is the sugar level can drop so sudden and fast (as has been stated here). Then you get confused and if you don't get something to drink or eat soon enough, unconsciousness hits and soon seizures.

I have to constantly monitor my blood levels. As for diabetic athletes, the running and excercise alone will drop their blood sugar.

Actually, normal blood sugar levels vary very little from person to person.

What you described sounds almost like borderline hyperglycemia. Ever been diagnosed and/or tested?

If not, you definitely should.

 

[Beast_from_East]

Huge fan of Jay, hope all is well with him. He's tough, though.

Jay is going to be ok, he is actually lucky that he has access to an NFL medical staff, I am sure they will monitor his condition closely.

 

[wahoofan22]

My daughter just turned 3 and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last November. Cutler really should be able to continue his playing career with this disease, although his life really did change forever (and got a whole lot more complicated). I read where he is going to get an insulin pump in a month, which should be a big improvement over the shots. It's definitely made our lives better. I'm sure he'll have tremendous medical care and they'll figure out just how to deal with game days for him.

It would be great if he turned this into an opportunity to become an advocate for diabetes, but that's up to him. I'm sure he's still in a state of shock over his diagnosis. I still can't believe my daughter has it some days.

I think I'm going to buy a Cutler jersey for her. She's already got the Romo. It would be great to be able to show her that a football player has the same thing she does. I'll be pulling for him.