Fans love S. Epatha Merkerson as hospital administrator “Sharon Goodwin” on NBC’s Chicago Med and as “Lt. Anita Van Buren” on the iconic drama Law and Order. But many in the public may be unaware of Merkerson’s private struggle. For more than a decade, the Michigan native has been living with type 2 diabetes.
The Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actress is no stranger to the disease. Her dad died from it. It took her grandmother’s sight and her uncle’s legs. Her brother struggles with it, too.
“Within our family, it was a touch of sugar,” Merkerson said. “It never was anything big.”
This lackadaisical attitude toward the disease led her family to downplay its significance.
“We did not talk about it,” she said. “And it was rampant in our family.”
Even with a family history of type 2 diabetes, Merkerson said diagnosis still came as a shock.
Merkerson attended a health convention. While there, a doctor tested her for diabetes and asked her to return to the table. She thought he wanted an autograph or picture. Instead, she received the bad news. Her blood sugar levels were high. Merkerson’s personal physician confirmed the diagnosis.
Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which a person does not make enough insulin and/or the insulin that the body makes does not work the way it should. The body may keep making glucose even though it does not need it. This causes the blood glucose level to become too high, better known as hyperglycemia.
Being African-American, Merkerson knew how prevalent the disease is within the community. According to the American Diabetes Association, 13% of all African Americans have been diagnosed with the disease, and it is the fifth leading cause of death within the community. Upon learning she was diabetic, Merkerson realized she needed to take her health seriously.
She and her doctor…
…designed a plan to keep her healthy. She would check her blood sugar twice a day, exercise and eat healthier. Merkerson has been faithful to those plans, making life changes slowly and in moderation. At 64, she says she is still discovering how to take care of herself. She finds time in her busy schedule to swim three times a week and eats a healthier diet. Occasionally, she may crave a soda. But gone are the days of consuming copious amounts of junk food. An arugula and chicken salad is one of her go-to meals.
Merkerson’s experiences and her family’s nonchalant attitude about diabetes encouraged her to use her celebrity platform to raise awareness about the disease. She is an advocate for America’s Diabetes Challenge. It is an educational program from Merck and the American Diabetes Association to urge people with type 2 diabetes to work with their doctor to set and reach their A1C goal, which is the average blood glucose over the past two to three months.
The program also encourages people to learn if they are at risk of hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose. It provides tips to help people with type 2 diabetes and their loved ones manage the disease and highlights the challenges many people with the diabetes share.
Merkerson has collaborated with the America’s Diabetes Challenge for four years traveling around the country hosting events raising awareness on the disease, encouraging people to be proactive, and sharing her story to let people know they are not alone. She credits the program on its rewarding impact in teaching her that diabetes is manageable if you are proactive, and how it has helped her relate with others with the same challenges as her.
Her main goal is to provide the knowledge. “Everywhere we go we are disseminating information to have people understand that if you know better you can do better,” she said. “It’s not a touch. It’s a disease.”
On camera, Merkerson takes her diabetes campaign to the small screen. Her character Sharon Goodwin on Chicago Med revealed…
…at the end of last season that she has diabetes, a unique intersection between her professional and personal life. She almost rejected the story line. After she finished her work with Law and Order, many people thought she had cancer. She didn’t, and she was wary of opening herself to speculation about her personal health. Her true-life story helped her decide to merge fact with fiction.
“I’m not talking about it, I’m living it,” she said. “We’re not telling false stories. We’re educating, and I think that’s the best of television when it entertains as well as educates.”
Merkerson advises people who have diabetes or who may be at risk to talk about it and stay educated on the disease because it is always changing. Once she did her research, she discovered the connection between the illness in her family and the lack of proper diabetes management. Now, conversations with her family members have changed.
“Now when I talk to my brother,” she says, “We always say to each other ‘What’s your A1C, not who are you listening to on the radio or what book have you read lately? But what is your A1C? We start there.”
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