Dean Riggott Photography
Surescripts
When he was 15, barely old enough to drive, Jeremy Zacks had an insulin problem. But he didn't know it then. No one did—not his mother, who brought him to see his doctor (although she had her suspicions), not his doctor, who advised that there was nothing to worry about, no need to jump to conclusions. It was three more years of worsening symptoms—nagging thirst, stubborn fatigue—before Zacks was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at 18, just as he flew off for his freshman year at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia.
While Zacks studied history and enjoyed college life, first at Kwantlen Polytechnic and then at York University in Toronto, he did what people often do for one reason or another: ignored the reality of his diagnosis, hoping it would go away, and had as much beer and pizza as he wanted, like his friends. “You know what?” said Zacks, who now works as a business advisor at Surescripts. “I don’t have diabetes anymore.”
But it didn’t go away. His body had other plans.
Insulin’s function is to deliver this post-meal message to the body’s cells: “It’s time to clean house.” What needs cleaning is the bloodstream. Glucose is the simplest carbohydrate, a monosaccharide made of one sugar molecule, and it flows abundantly through the bloodstream after eating and drinking. Insulin maintains homeostasis by prompting cells to suck up glucose for energy and stash excess glucose as reserves in the liver, muscle and body fat.
Left to roam the bloodstream unchecked, glucose will wreak havoc on the body and throw homeostasis out of whack. But Zacks didn’t learn any of this after college or even after his first post-graduate job as Jewish Student Liaison at Michigan State University. Zacks moved through major milestones in his life, including a move to Chicago, and then Minnesota to start a family. He didn’t make his health a priority during these years.
At home in Minnesota—now with three young children under his roof—something felt off. He felt sluggish. Finally, at his wife Jennifer’s urging, Zacks went to see the doctor. "Your blood sugars are really bad," he was told. "You have to get on insulin now."
Zacks still had type 2 diabetes after all.
