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Tuesday, October 3
Warning signs:Threats like rising obesity rate could make diabetes an epidemic [click for more]William Flynn remembers all too well the weekend in high school when he could not quench his thirst. In just a few days, he drank an entire case of Coke.
By Sunday, he felt terribly sick. His blood sugar had soared to the scary level of 500, more than triple the normal range. Doctors diagnosed him with juvenile diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body does not manufacture enough insulin. To survive, he would need to inject himself with insulin daily and closely monitor his diet and exercise. "I felt like I was being destroyed," recalled Flynn. "I had to gain control over it." He has been doing just that for 18 years now. One recent afternoon, Flynn, 37, a man with the impish smile and boyish looks of Matthew Broderick, came home from work at Phillips Academy in Andover and quickly attended to his diabetes needs. He jabbed a finger stick into his skin to draw blood to measure his glucose level, noting that it feels like pushing in a thumb tack. His injection of insulin would come a... |