[neverdem]

Gerald Cleveland, 90, left, and his brother, Robert, 85, diabetics since childhood.

Chris Livingston for The New York Times
Robert Cleveland, who turns 86 in March, checking his sugar level at his winter home in Melbourne, Fla.

Michael J. Okoniewski for The New York Times
Gerald Cleveland, Robert's brother, logged his sugar levels last month at his home in Jamesville, N.Y. "I never expected to live to be 50," he said.

BAD BLOOD the series

[stormlead]

that's inspiring stuff, especially for those of us with a high incidence of diabetes in our family trees.

Good for these guys.

[neverdem]

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[Jaded]

That is awesome for the two brothers!

[muggs]

Wow, they look great for their ages!

[Popman]

Has someone who was on the brink of going full blown diabetic Type 2, I have learned great deal about the disease in the last six months.

Their story is truly inspiring.

[Kimmers]

Thank you for this post....I am going to send this article to my school nurse friends. We are having concerns about diabetic education for kids. They have insulin pumps and it seems that they have free rein to eat anything and adjust the pump accordingly....we still see the same highs and lows...it can't be healthy....I have always felt the strict diabetic diet like these guys are following is the healthy way to be for all of us....

[VOA]

bump

[TASMANIANRED]

They look mighty good for their ages.

[Investment Biker]

First these guys are both t1 diabetics not t2. T1 diabetes can kill you in an instant, I know I have it. While the discipline and effort these brothers have put into managing their disease is admirable one has to wonder if their quality of life is not totally diminished by the obsessive behavior necessary to manage the disease. I know it has diminished mine. Further not all people are impacted by high sugars. Some for some reason have a genetic disposition to avoid the complications despite the high sugars. Are these brothers so disposed? We don't know.

I would recommend all that have diabetes, both t1 and t2, take benoftiamine. Benfotiamine is a fat soluble form of Thiamine. It has been shown to offer some protection against neuropathic complications. I take 300mg daily, equal to about 13,000% of the RDA of water soluble thiamine.

[jocon307]

That's pretty amazing. My father had diabetes from age 22 or so (not really sure how old he was when it manifested, but he'd been in the Navy in WWII, so he wasn't all that young) and he did not live past 63. And he was quite careful, and was thin, but he could never really control it, that diease beat the hell out him.

My poor father, he was really a good guy, I wish he'd lived to be as old as these guys, hey, he'd still be alive! He'd have gotten a kick out of FR, even though he came from a Massachusetts Irish Catholic family he was always very conservative, in fact he was like the original compassionate conservative.

[GovernmentShrinker]

The disgusting thing is that these brothers have paid colossal amounts of money in income and Medicare taxes, which have been spent on providing unnecessary medical care, disability payments, housing subsidies, etc. to diabetics who flat-out refuse to exercise any self-control. The New York Times ran a huge series on this a couple of weeks ago. NYC's poor neighborhoods are full of people who simply refuse to test their blood sugar or use insulin, much less control their eating. One woman's daughter explained why: "She doesn't like needles."

[Ciexyz]

What a wonderful, inspirational story. Praise the Lord for the example of these two men.

[SamAdams76]

The kind of diet these brothers are on goes beyond diabetes. Watching your sugar intake, avoiding simple starches (which essentially metabolize in your body to sugar) and exercising make a big difference.

When I switched to a normal-carb diet a few years ago and started exercising daily (walking), I lost most of my excess weight and people told me I looked 10 years younger.

Since then, I've experimented putting processed foods back into my diet and each time, I start feeling lethargic and bloated again, put on weight and generally start feeling lousy. As soon as I go back to my diet of mostly whole foods (what you generally find on the outside perimeter of the supermarket), I'm feeling good once more.

This kind of lifestyle works.

[Hardastarboard]

A major competitive bodybuilder from the 1980's, Tim Belknap, winner of Mr. Universe, Mr. America, and Mr. World, had Type 1 diabetes from the age of 15. I was always amazed that he was able to get so huge, muscular and strong and actually win competitive body building championships when he had been afflicted with Type 1 diabetes. Part of that amazement comes from knowing what type of diet those guys have to eat to get that big. I'm still in amazement today.

He used to give inspirational talks to Type 1 teens, and I always thought that had to be the ultimate uplifter for a kid who just found out that they had diabetes, to see this guy with huge muscles and a good life telling them that they could be OK.