• I found out in 2021 that I had diabetes.
• My first concern was what the diagnosis would mean for my on-the-go lifestyle.
• Now I'm the healthiest I've ever been, and I'm calling 2025 the "year of yes."

When I found out I had diabetes in February 2021, I thought it was a death sentence. I was in denial, especially since I ate a healthy diet and exercised.

Still, for months, I felt exhausted and run down to the point where some days it was hard to get out of bed. Part of me was relieved to understand why I was experiencing these symptoms, but I was mostly overwhelmed and scared about the unknowns of how this could change my life.

I knew about type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but like many people, I didn't fully grasp how they're different. And what threw me for a bigger loop: I have the less common type, 1.5.

My diagnosis hasn't slowed me down

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition, while type 2 diabetes is more related to lifestyle factors like obesity and lack of exercise, along with genetics. Type 1.5 diabetes is when your pancreas slowly stops producing insulin in adulthood, usually around age 40, which is what happened in my case.

As you might expect, my social media algorithm has gotten much more health-focused since I've been grappling with my diabetes diagnosis. I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands, of videos offering tips and tricks to manage glucose levels. It can be overwhelming, especially when the diagnosis is still fresh.

One of my primary worries when I was diagnosed was what this would mean for my on-the-go lifestyle. Would I have to slow down? I found out the answer was no. I could still be just as social and fulfilled as ever.

Between *NSYNC reuniting for Dreamworks' Trolls, children's book press tours, new TV projects, and hosting the Christmas tree lighting at The Grove — or even volunteering at the local animal shelter — I've realized diabetes didn't hold me back. It's just something I manage along the way.

Integrating my family into my diabetes management routine has been helpful, too. My husband always asks me if I've packed my insulin before I leave the house, knowing that I can be forgetful in packing my supplies.

My two 3-year-old kids also think it's fun to watch me change my CGM sensor, used to measure glucose levels providing real time readings, and like to see my glucose levels on my phone. I try to explain my diabetes to them in a kid-friendly way. Even though they might not fully understand it yet, I think it's important to be open about it with them.

Fun fact: I've also learned that people with diabetes can still consume sugar. However, they need to manage it carefully. Sure, I can have the birthday cake, but just a few bites. It's about balance, checking my glucose levels, monitoring the way I eat, and portion control. And now I can get away with housing Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on my nightstand in case my glucose levels drop in the middle of the night.

I've figured out my new lifestyle

I feel lucky to have diabetes during a time when it's much easier to manage than it was five years ago. The first time a CGM sent information to a cellphone was in 2015, and since then, they've gotten more accurate and discreet.

At the beginning of my diagnosis, I was constantly pricking my finger to measure my blood sugar. It was incredibly time-consuming and challenging to keep up with.

Now I use a Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitor (CGM) — which I am now an ambassador for — that has made it easier to manage my diabetes. This small wearable measures my blood glucose and helps me identify factors that maintain my glucose levels, such as incorporating electrolytes and weightlifting.

With the help of doctors, I've figured out what lifestyle adjustments work best for me. I'm increasingly wary of the health information I see on social media, especially if it isn't coming from a licensed professional. Now that I'm blocking out the noise, I'm the healthiest I've ever been and feel confident managing my diabetes.

I'm calling 2025 my "year of yes," which to me means taking every opportunity to travel and experience everything I can. This is a 180 from how I felt in the early days of my diabetes diagnosis.

• Eric Stonestreet told Business Insider that he has type 2 diabetes and uses Mounjaro to treat it.
• Stonestreet kept his diagnosis a secret for years because he was ashamed, but decided to speak out.
• Mounjaro helped him control his diabetes and motivated him to develop healthier habits, he said.

In 2009, Eric Stonestreet took on the role that would change his life: the fun and flamboyant stay-at-home dad Cam on "Modern Family." But Stonestreet's life changed in more ways than one that year: he was also diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

The Emmy-winning actor told Business Insider that he started taking Mounjaro — a GLP-1 agonist drug similar to Ozempic — in 2022 to treat his diabetes. He is speaking publicly for the first time about having the condition and using Mounjaro, in partnership with its manufacturer, Eli Lilly.

The active ingredient in GLP-1s mimics a hormone of the same name, which the gut produces naturally to help balance blood sugar.

After researchers realized GLP-1s were causing patients to lose significant amounts of weight, largely through appetite suppression, medications such as Wegovy (known as Ozempic for diabetes) and Zepbound (the Mounjaro equivalent) were approved for weight loss in 2023 and have soared in popularity in the years since.

Stonestreet, 53, said the medication changed his life by helping him keep his diabetes under control and motivating him to adopt a healthier lifestyle. He said he wants to raise awareness of type 2 diabetes.

"We have to get people talking about it and take away the stigma," Stonestreet said.

Stonestreet kept his type 2 diabetes diagnosis a secret for years

Stonestreet said his type 2 diabetes diagnosis was wrapped up in shame about being a bigger person.

He grew up on a farm in Kansas and played lots of sports. He looks back on himself as a slim kid, but didn't always think that way.

"I've never thought of myself as anything other than a fat or overweight kid," Stonestreet said. "In seventh grade, I was almost six foot, 175 pounds. I was the biggest kid in class. But when I see pictures of myself back then, I'd do anything to have that physique now. So I think in a way, how I viewed myself and how I look sort of manifested itself."

Stonestreet started putting on weight in his senior year, and stayed a similar size for about 20 years. "It's only in the last 15 years that I felt like I started to put on too much weight," he said.

After he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, Stonestreet was in denial. He "took some simple treatments that the doctor recommended," but didn't tell anyone about it.

"I was embarrassed by it, ashamed, just because here I am, this heavy set guy, of course I have type two diabetes, and everybody would just be like, 'Well, duh,'" he said.

But type 2 diabetes doesn't only affect people with larger bodies. It's caused by insulin resistance, and while research suggests that 80 to 85% of the risk is tied to obesity, other factors — including genetics, activity levels, race, and age — also play a role.

"You never know what someone living with type 2 diabetes looks like," Stonestreet said. "It's easy to paint with a broad brush in that way."

Stonestreet decided to open up to his parents about having the disease when his dad was diagnosed with leukaemia. He later died in 2021.

"Seeing my dad's health fail and my mom have other health issues unrelated to type 2, that got them really talking about their diabetes. And then that got me to admit to them that I had it," he said.

This Easter, he found out two of his cousins have type 2 diabetes, too. "Never knew that in my life," he said.

Stonestreet said he and his cousins feeling comfortable to open up about having type 2 diabetes is what he hopes his campaign will achieve on a wider scale.

Stonestreet said taking Mounjaro inspired him to change his lifestyle

Stonestreet had tried other treatments for diabetes, but nothing had as profound an effect as Mounjaro, he said.

"My doctor at the time was very excited about it coming out; he told me, 'Eric, when this drug hits the market, you're going to be one of the first people on it. It's going to be great for you.' And it has been," he said. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for diabetes in 2022.

Mounjaro is injected weekly, and Stonestreet built up to the highest dose. It has helped him lower his A1C (average blood sugar levels) to pre-diabetic numbers, he said.

The medication's efficacy inspired him to work on his overall lifestyle, and he started moving for 150 minutes a week, mostly by walking. Patients on Mounjaro and other GLP-1s are advised to eat a nutritious diet and exercise regularly.

"It's been crazy. The numbers don't lie, and it's just been slowly ticking down," Stonestreet said, referring to his A1C. "Once I really started focusing on diet and exercise to go along with Mounjaro, my A1C just fell off a cliff. It's remarkable."

He added: "All of a sudden, I felt like I needed to be accountable to it, because it's showing up every day to do something for me."

By changing his outlook on his lifestyle, the medication has been a "life-changer," he said.

"Those doctors at Lilly, scientists, researchers, they did all the work to create it. And so I'm not going to just spit in its face and all their faces by not doing at least my part to make the drug as effective as it can," Stonestreet said.

In studies, patients have lost up to 20% of their bodyweight on Mounjaro, but that was never Stonestreet's focus, and he lost a few pounds when he started on it.

He also said he didn't experience common side effects of the drug, such as nausea and constipation. GLP-1 drugs are considered a long-term treatment, and some patients have found the side effects too challenging to continue.

Stonestreet views monitoring his glucose levels like a game

Stonestreet uses a continuous glucose monitor to track his blood sugar levels and treats it like a game.

"I'm logging information constantly, and it's turned into something I'm addicted to," he said. "Making sure my blood sugar is always where it needs to be."

He watches what he eats but allows himself to "mess up every once in a while."

Ultimately, Stonestreet thinks it's important to have realistic expectations in life.

"If I had moved to Los Angeles to be a lifeguard on 'Baywatch', I would've had a very unfulfilled career," he said. "Could I have been a sunburn victim on 'Baywatch'? Sure. On the beach, visiting from Kansas? Completely realistic."

He added: "So I think if I can give people advice — and it's not always easy to take advice from somebody that's doing it — but it's just set yourself realistic expectations. Don't say, 'Man, I'm going to run a marathon', or 'I'm never going to have a piece of candy again in my life'. Just bit by bit, piece by piece."

• Drugmaker Eli Lilly announced promising Phase 3 study results for its new GLP-1 pill.
• Orforglipron is a drug similar to Ozempic but without the injection, making it more accessible.
• The pill, poised to revolutionize the weight loss world, may be up for FDA approval in late 2025.

A daily pill to rival Ozempic is one step closer to hitting the market.

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly saw its stock jump Thursday morning after announcing initial Phase 3 trial results on orforglipron, a highly anticipated medication for diabetes and weight loss.

The drug is in the same class of GLP-1 medications as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound — weekly injections that upended the weight-loss industry — but in pill form.

Lilly's head of diabetes and obesity Patrik Jonsson recently told Business Insider that orforglipron will likely unlock a much wider market, bringing the benefits of groundbreaking weight-loss drugs to people who can't, or don't want to, use injections.

"Most importantly, when you look at the global need, we expect that there are more than one billion people across the globe that are suffering from obesity," Jonsson said. "There is no way that we can meet those demands with injectable treatments today."

The race to make the perfect weight-loss pill

Lilly is racing to bring the first pill version of a GLP-1 for weight loss to market against competitors like Novo Nordisk and Pfizer, whose prospects have not lived up to expectations.

Novo Nordisk's Rybelsus, a daily pill with the same properties as Ozempic, was FDA-approved for diabetes in 2019.

However, its weight loss results didn't stack up to other GLP-1 drugs in studies, and it's not straightforward to take; users need to fast before and for 30 minutes after taking the pill.

Pfizer's daily pill, danuglipron, was scrapped after one study participant developed liver problems and recovered after they stopped taking the drug.

What we know about Eli Lilly's orforglipron

If all goes well for Lilly, orforglipron could be up for FDA approval for weight management by the end of 2025, and for type 2 diabetes treatment in 2026.

In the topline results released today, adults with diabetes who took orforglipron for 40 weeks had significantly better blood sugar control than those who took a placebo, according to a press release from Lilly.

They also lost up to 16 pounds (about 7.6% of their body weight) on average while taking the highest dose, and hadn't plateaued by the end of the study, suggesting even more weight loss could be possible.

The study — one of seven trials planned — found orforglipron is just as safe as other GLP-1 drugs, with the similar side effects like diarrhea and nausea.

The company intends to release more data later this year, Lilly's CEO David A. Ricks said in the press release.

The big question is: will it be cheaper than Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, or Zepbound?

While Eli Lilly has been tight-lipped about list price, analysts say there's a good chance orforglipron could cost less than the $900 monthly list price of current drugs, since a pill is easier to produce and distribute.

• Virta Health is now prescribing GLP-1s to treat obesity alongside its diabetes-reversal program.
• Virta says it's doing $100 million in annual recurring revenue and seeing its growth accelerate.
• Its CEO says the startup aims to hit profitability by the end of 2025 ahead of a potential IPO.

Virta Health has prescribed GLP-1 medications like Ozempic for diabetes since the startup began caring for patients in 2016. Now, it wants to prescribe the buzzy drugs to treat obesity, too.

Virta made a name for itself in virtual diabetes care with its rigorous nutrition plans. The program aims to help patients reverse type 2 diabetes largely through personalized low-carb diets. The startup began treating prediabetes and obesity in 2020.

While GLP-1 medications were originally developed to treat diabetes, the drugs have exploded for their weight-loss potential. However, previous clinical research has shown that patients gain back most of the weight lost with a GLP-1 when they stop taking the medication. That's a big problem for employers, who don't want to pay for the expensive drugs indefinitely.

Virta now is positioning itself as a "responsible prescriber" for employers who want to manage the costs of covering those medications for their employees by pairing the prescriptions with nutrition support. The company says it can help patients lose the weight and keep it off — Virta released a study in February 2024 showing its program can help diabetes patients maintain their weight loss after they stop taking GLP-1s.

Virta's expanded weight-loss program could be the last push the startup needs to get to profitability — and maybe even an IPO.

The company is now bringing in more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue, a 60% year-over-year increase, CEO Sami Inkinen told Business Insider. Virta expects even faster growth in 2025 as its weight-loss business accelerates.

Inkinen said Virta will be profitable by the end of 2025.

"An IPO is the next milestone for us," he said. He declined to provide details on Virta's planned timeline for a public market debut but suggested that the company wants to be profitable before it tests the IPO waters.

Virta's biggest competitor, Omada Health, is using a similar strategy as the diabetes startup approaches an IPO. BI reported in October that Omada Health had filed its S-1 this summer; CEO Sean Duffy told BI later that month that Omada's obesity care program had become the entry point for most of its new customers.

Digital health's weight-loss frenzy

Virta and Omada's expansion into obesity care is one of many channels of the surging market for weight loss solutions, as consumers rush to get their hands on GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy.

Telehealth businesses like venture-backed Ro went big on new offerings to provide virtual weight-loss care alongside prescriptions. WW International, more commonly known as WeightWatchers, switched up its diet-centric approach in 2023 by acquiring digital health platform Sequence to offer GLP-1 medications to its customers. Ro's public competitor, Hims and Hers, bought a compounding pharmacy in September largely to prescribe knock-off versions of weight loss drugs like Ozempic while those medications are in shortage.

Inkinen emphasized that Virta has no financial reason to prescribe GLP-1s.

"We are not an online pill mill. We don't make money from the drugs, and we are not incentivized to prescribe drugs to make money," he said.

As the market has gotten more competitive, Inkinen said employers and health plans have increasingly honed their strategies for GLP-1 coverage. Previously, he said, employers either covered the drugs with few caveats or blocked payments for the medications altogether. Now, they're beginning to meet in the middle.

"You have to have a holistic approach, where you say, these drugs are a useful tool in the toolkit for some people, but you also have to have a nutrition-first approach, and prescribe any drugs in a responsible manner," he said.

Most of Virta's patients aren't on GLP-1s today. Inkinen said about 30% of their incoming type 2 diabetes patients are taking GLP-1s when they begin Virta's program. He added that most of those patients can safely stop taking the drugs within the first year of Virta's diabetes-reversal program.

The startup said it plans to hire rapidly to meet increasing demand for its weight-loss offering, including by more than doubling the number of health coaches and medical providers on staff.

After studying burn victims and war veterans, entrepreneur Ran Ma hand-made a sock that contained sensors to detect foot ulcers. Now, her company, Siren, has secured $9.5 million, with an $8 million check from lead investor Mölnlycke Health Care to further the development and adoption of its diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) prevention product. It’s now […]

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• Maya Ramirez, 31, has been attending diabetes camp all her life.
• In 2023, she attended a diabetes camp for adults for the first time.
• Adult diabetes camp gave her community and helped her process the grief of losing her mom.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Maya Ramirez. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was born with a condition called congenital hyperinsulinism, which essentially means your pancreas releases insulin to an excessive level. The condition led to the removal of my pancreas at eight months old, resulting in me developing pancreatogenic, or type 3c, diabetes, which is a type of diabetes that happens after your pancreas is compromised or removed.

Diabetes camp as a kid helped me find community

My oldest brother has type 2 diabetes now, but growing up, I didn't have any friends or family with the condition. I didn't have a community and wanted to know other kids who could relate to what I was going through. Things changed for the better at 10 years old when I received my first insulin pump.

The medical device made me feel confident enough to go to sleep-away diabetes camp because it allowed me to better manage my diabetes without my parents' help. Diabetes camp is just like a traditional summer camp for children, but with a medical staff and camp attendees who are living with diabetes — often type 1.

I met several kids my age who were also living with diabetes and built friendships. From that point on, I went to diabetes camp every summer, and sometimes, if my parents would allow it, I would attend multiple camps each summer. One July, I hopped off one bus, went home to do laundry, and then hopped on another bus to attend another camp.

Eventually, I went from camp attendee to counselor. When I was around 16, I became a camp counselor in training, and then at 18, I became a counselor. I took two years off from working at diabetes camps in college, but now I'm working in an administrative role for a nonprofit based in California that supports families impacted by type 1 diabetes with community-building events and camps.

I went to an adult diabetes camp for the first time last year

Even though I'd been to many camps growing up, I attended an adult diabetes camp for the first time at the age of 30 in August 2023 through the nonprofit I work for. When we arrived, they gave us a schedule of activities to choose from. There were educational sessions led by medical staff, nurses, and even therapists.

One of the educational sessions focused on navigating pregnancy with diabetes. We learned about blood sugar management when pregnant, what type of doctor visits we should have, and where to find a support group. I'm at the stage where I may have kids soon, so the session was very informative.

People of all ages were in attendance. You have to be at least 18, but I saw a woman in her 70s when I went. The camp is way up in the mountains in California, and there's no cell service. But we had all the activities you think of when you think of camp — pool time, archery, arts and crafts, and hiking. One night, we had a traditional campfire with skits, songs, and s'mores, which was one of my highlights.

We all slept on giant outside decks. Each deck had a cot with a mattress, and we could sleep under the stars. August in California is typically super hot, so we were pretty toasty. There's something so peaceful and tranquil about sleeping under the stars with the sound of nature in the background. Even though we were in the woods, we had fully functioning restrooms and showers.

A lot of people living with diabetes sometimes feel restricted in what they can eat because some doctors and society, in general, have created a bad stigma about the relationship between diabetics and food. The message is, "Oh, you can't eat this because you have diabetes." At camp, it was instilled in us that we can still eat what we enjoy. We just have to figure out the carb count and administer a proper amount of insulin based on what our body needs. Luckily, the kitchen staff at the camp had a full carb breakdown on all the foods and measurements, so we didn't have to guess.

I processed my mom's death during camp

I lost my mom back in 2018, and when I think about my diabetes journey, I think about my mom. From day one, my mom pushed me to be independent and said, "Hey, it's just something you'll live with. You're not different; you're not weird." She didn't want diabetes to stop me from doing anything I wanted. When she died, I felt lost in life. She was my person.

During one of our adult camp discussion sessions facilitated by a therapist, I opened up about how her death impacted me and the worries I had about navigating diabetes without the person I had talked to most about the condition for my entire life.

The camp discussion finally allowed me to let out all of the feelings I had been navigating for years after losing my mom but hadn't processed out loud. Because of camp, I was able to process my grief around people who not only understood navigating a serious medical condition, but some also understood navigating a serious medical condition while simultaneously grieving a parent.

In an exclusive interview with Business Insider's Mia de Graaf, Sen. Bernie Sanders talks about his push to improve labels on ultra-processed foods across the US, RFK Jr.'s plans to overhaul the industry, and the obesity epidemic.