Ever since Morgan Bathke was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 15 years old, she’s had to focus on keeping her blood sugar in check. While that process involves tracking what she eats, many other things affect her blood sugar.
“My blood sugar spikes when I’m doing an interview,” said Bathke, a sales trainer at Dexcom, which sells continuous glucose monitors. “Right now, if I look down at my watch, (I can see that) my blood sugar (is) slightly rising, just because of the stress of public speaking.”
Other things that can affect blood sugar levels include hormonal changes, dehydration, stress, sleep and exercise, along with menstrual periods and menopause. With Type 1 diabetes, which Bathke lives with, the pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes, meanwhile, is caused by insulin resistance, meaning the body is unable to use insulin as well over time.
When Bathke was diagnosed, she was a gymnast and diver and wondered if she would have to stop participating in the sports she loved. Though Bathke did give up gymnastics, she continued to dive and was recruited by the University of Minnesota as an NCAA Division I platform diver. Though it was challenging to manage her blood sugar with diving practice and stress, Bathke said she “never wanted (quitting) to be a part of (my) story.”
In November, Bathke, who lives in St. Louis Park, will be diving into running shoes, instead, as a member of the Beyond Type 1 running team for the TCS New York City Marathon.
A few years ago, she was connected through the diabetes community with an ex-Marine named Cody White who had recently been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. White was a marathon runner and was trying to manage his blood sugar levels while exercising. Bathke stepped in to help.
“The next year he went on to run the New York City Marathon with Beyond Type 1 and has been (asking me) to do it ever since. I’ve held him at bay and said, ‘No, I’m not a runner. I can’t do it,’” Bathke said. “He’s actually been helping me now in preparation and training for the New York City Marathon. It’s been a really cool testament to just how powerful the diabetes community is.”
Beyond Type 1, founded by Nick Jonas, perhaps best known as one of three members of the Jonas Brothers, and Juliet de Baubigny to support those living with diabetes, is one of the TCS Marathon’s official charity partners. This year, more than 50 runners on the Beyond Type 1 team are running to raise awareness, share their stories and fundraise for Beyond Type 1’s mission of supporting people living with both types of diabetes.
“I am super excited that this year Beyond Type 1 has opened up the marathon team to not only people living with Type 1 diabetes, but also people living with Type 2 diabetes and caregivers of people living with diabetes,” Bathke added. “Within my own journey in Type 1, I’ve realized how much diabetes impacts the entire family (and) our caregivers.”
Community outreach
The marathon is only one part of Beyond Type 1’s efforts to raise awareness about diabetes.
Beyond Type 1 is also reaching out to diverse audiences — including communities of color facing disparities in prevalence, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes — as part of its “Beyond Barriers” program. The program, which will begin in November, which is National Diabetes Month, will focus on informing these communities about available resources for diabetes, some of which, such as diabetes management, education and peer support, can be found at Beyond Type 1.
“You can’t access what you don’t know about,” said Kristian Hurley, senior vice president of programs advocacy and health equity at Beyond Type 1. “Beyond Barriers,” which will begin in November in three pilot cities — Miami, Detroit and Chicago — will also include “hyperlocal awareness campaigns” involving partnering organizations, including Chi Eta Phi, an African-American nursing sorority, and various federally qualified health centers and churches. These partners received grants from Beyond Type 1 to assist with these campaigns.
While diabetes can affect anyone, communities of color face various disparities compared with white Americans. According to the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, non-Hispanic Black Americans were twice as likely as non-Hispanic white Americans to die from diabetes in 2019, and 1.2 times more likely to have their vision impaired as a result of diabetes in 2021. The office also states that Hispanic Americans were 1.5 times more likely to die from diabetes than non-Hispanic white Americans in 2020.
“One of the things that we see as a barrier, and particularly in our Black and brown communities, is that young people are not adopting diabetes technology” said Hurley, who added that this is likely the result of “confusion” about insurance coverage and how technology such as continuous glucose monitoring devices actually works. Beyond Type 1, Hurley added, wants to ensure that all communities are able to access technology, along with screening services.
Beyond Type 1, said Hurley, also wants to engage “more of our Black and brown and underserved communities in clinical trials.”
“There’s so much innovation happening right now, particularly in Type 1,” Hurley said. “We want to make sure that all communities are benefiting and contributing to that research, effort and innovation.”
The first part of creating change is visibility and awareness — both key elements of Beyond Type 1’s participation in the TCS New York marathon and in creating the Beyond Barriers program. After all, said Bathke, “There’s nothing more empowering than getting together with a group of people who are in a similar circumstance and doing something that a lot of people think that they can’t do.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the description of Dexcom.
Deanna Pistono
Deanna Pistono is MinnPost’s Race & Health Equity fellow. Follow her on Twitter @deannapistono or email her at dpistono@minnpost.com.
