Celebrity Diabetes Series: Rocker and reality show star Bret Michaels

You may know that Bret Michaels is out of the hospital and recuperating with his daughters and fiancée after having surgery yesterday, January 24, 2012 to repair a hole in his heart. Bret had a brain hemorrhage in 2010 as well.

Of course you may have no idea who Bret Michael Sychak is. Bret is a 47-year old rocker (lead singer for the band Poison) and Celebrity Apprentice winner just to name a couple of his …well his resume builders.

What is most important is that this tough guy was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when he was six years old.

He earned $640,000 for the American Diabetes Association for his Celebrity Apprentice 3 win.

Bret takes four insulin injections a day and eight blood tests.

Whatever you think of Mr. Michaels he is a testament to living with diabetes while having a thriving and active life.

Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes—is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. This high blood sugar produces the classical symptoms of frequent urination, increased thirst and increased hunger.

"There are three main types of diabetes:

• Type 1 diabetes: results from the body's failure to produce insulin, and presently requires the person to inject insulin. (Also referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, IDDM for short, and juvenile diabetes.)
• Type 2 diabetes: results from insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly, sometimes combined with an absolute insulin deficiency. (Formerly referred to as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, NIDDM for short, and adult-onset diabetes.)
• Gestational diabetes: is when pregnant women, who have never had diabetes before, have a high blood glucose level during pregnancy. It may precede development of type 2 DM." (wikipedia)

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