Testimony: Dominique Wilkins

On his diagnosis:

Seven years ago I found out I had Type 2 Diabetes. For about two or three months, I was really feeling awful. I had dry mouth, fatigue, vision was a little blurry and I had to use the restroom every five minutes. I went and got tested and the doctor did a four-hour test on me. He came back and said I have good news and bad news. The good news is your not dying. I said, 'Well, OK. What's the bad news?' He said, 'The bad news is you're a diabetic, Type 2. We have to immediately put you on medication because your blood sugar level is 350-375. Your natural sugar level should be under 120.' He said it's amazing you are walking. It takes a real strong person to be walking around with your blood sugar that high. He said I had to take as much sugar out of my diet as possible and change my lifestyle.

I went through denial for about a week. I can't have diabetes. I'm in a great shape. After I got through the denial and the shock, I decided I had to do something about this. Immediately I started the medication twice a day, everyday. I started exercising. I took sugar products out of my diet. I ate a lot of fish, chicken and vegetables. In two and a half months, I lost 37 pounds. I had some complications. Cataracts in both eyes and I had to get corrective lenses put in. I wore glasses for the last seven years up until the last month.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes I became heavily involved in promoting diabetes education. I'm the spokesperson for juvenile diabetes because it is really bad with youth right now. Childhood diabetes is some of the worst you will ever see. You see these kids that inject insulin sometimes 10 times a day. It's very depressing. My whole purpose is to educate and raise awareness and make sure people understand you can live with it if you make changes in your life. Especially with Type 2 Diabetes. If you can help a few, you have done your job. In the last two weeks, I convinced 10 people to get tested. All 10 tested positive for diabetes. They had the same symptoms I had been through. I said 'I don't know what your doctors are telling you, but you're diabetic; Type 2 Diabetic.'

It's always good to get a second opinion. More importantly, I'm trying to encourage people to get tested. It's not a curse to live longer; especially in the African-American community. We have to stop living in denial. As a whole, we don't want to know about our health. We think maybe it will go away. I am here to tell you it ain't going away. All you are doing is prolonging your agony at the end of the day. To be medicated and working out and eating right will make you feel so much better at the end of the day. I feel better because of those lifestyle changes I have made. It's been a wonderful ride since then.

On coping with his diagnosis and moving forward:

For so many years I heard people say what I couldn't do and I wouldn't be successful. It was just fuel for me to succeed. It's the same thing with sickness for me. I'm not going to let anything beat me.

You are going to have to put me on my back where I can't walk. Otherwise you can't slow me down. I am probably more active now than I ever was. It's very important you can play with your kids without having physical problems. It's really selfish not to get your family educated and tested. People have got to understand the more you keep living in denial and keep putting it off, the worse you are making your problems.

On joining forces with Eat Well Be Well:

At Eat Well Be Well, what we have is sugar free and sugar alcohol free food products. Cereal, oatmeal, candy bars, chocolate: stuff that's real sugar free. Real sugar alcohol free that is healthy. This is a step in a positive direction especially for young people. Childhood obesity is so big in this country. This is a way we can get foods, these types of foods to the household where everyone, not just diabetics, wants to eat healthy. This is a great start.

On changing his family's eating habits:

They don't have a choice in my family. I'm just being honest. My sons, they are very athletically inclined. I've coached the baseball and basketball team and there are certain things that I won't let them eat. You have to let them have a little candy here and there. But at the same time you have to teach them what will happen down the road if you continue to eat this way. Not exercising, not eating right, that you can create long term problems -- especially when you have someone in your family who is a diabetic. The risk is higher that you can get it down the road. I make sure my kids stay active and eat right. My son, he's a pretty healthy eater. Even though he likes candy and stuff like that, he's a really healthy eater and I'm proud about that. But as a whole we try to teach kids in our neighborhood to get out from in front of that Nintendo and away from McDonalds two or three times a week. But it can be hard to convince kids that foods that are good for you are good to eat too. So we push it (healthy foods) and promote it to the parents because ultimately they've got to convince the kids to start eating healthy. That's where it starts – with the parents.