For 47-year-old Anderson, the diagnosis came in 2001. And though he knew he had some changes to make, he wasn’t quick to make them. “I didn’t deal with it as seriously as I should have in the beginning,” he admits. “I listened, but I didn’t really implement that into my life until much later. I wasn’t the best patient to my doctor.” During the years that followed his diagnosis, Anderson struggled to get his blood sugar under control. “Eventually you have that moment in your life, that epiphany, where you think, ‘What do I need to do to change this? What do I need to do to stay healthy and get better?’” he says. That wake-up call came when Anderson’s father passed away a decade ago from a pulmonary embolism following several complications from type 2 diabetes. He remembers thinking, ‘I don’t want to be a memory or a picture in a frame on a wall.’ He wanted to be around for his wife and his children, so he took stock of what was working and where he needed to improve to benefit his health. “I saw what living my life the way I was living it up until the point when I was diagnosed — I saw what that got me: It got me type 2 diabetes,” Anderson says. RELATED: 9 Surprising Complications of Type 2 Diabetes Anderson initially thought he could control the disease himself, but it wasn’t until he started taking it seriously that he began to get better. He began exercising more, and he cleaned up his diet. He cut out alcohol and became vegan for a while. These days, he sticks to a pescatarian diet, which focuses on eating fish, with a heavy emphasis on vegetables. He’s lost nearly 50 pounds since being diagnosed. Anne Peters, MD, director of the clinical diabetes program at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and Anderson’s physician, says effective management of type 2 diabetes typically requires lifestyle changes, such as to your diet and exercise routine, but she says what those changes are depends on the person. “No two diabetes patients are the same,” she says. In other words, what works for Anderson may not necessarily work for you. Anderson says the important thing is that you get real with yourself and acknowledge you have to deal with your health and your diagnosis rather than brushing it off. He teamed up with Novo Nordisk for their “Get Real About Diabetes” campaign to promote this idea and to help people with type 2 diabetes get the support they need to address the disease head-on. “We want to create awareness about diabetes and what we can do once we have been diagnosed with this disease, how we can overcome it, how we can manage it and live with it and not die from it,” Anderson says. RELATED: The Truth About How Diabetes May Affect Your Life Expectancy One of the hurdles many people with diabetes face is feeling ashamed, afraid, or embarrassed about the disease. Anderson has dealt with those feelings himself, including when he felt hesitant to take injectable medicines rather than oral ones. “I thought, ‘I don’t want to give myself a shot — that means I’m really sick,’” he says. “But the fact is my body really is sick, and my body needs that shot.” And taking that shot has helped him feel better. “Some patients are fearful or resistant to injectables, and that fear can be a barrier to success,” Dr. Peters says. “I encourage patients to discuss their treatment options with their physician and care team, and to keep an open mind.” Anderson echoes his doctor’s sentiments. “Have real conversations with yourself and with your doctors — have a real, honest conversation about what it is you need to change in your life so you can live a long, healthy life,” Anderson says. “You have to make the choice to get better. You have to make the choice to be healthy.”
