Patti LaBelle on Her Diabetes: ‘I Changed My Way of Living’

Patti LaBelle had a tough wake-up call when she found out she had diabetes more than 22 years ago.

The singing icon had family members who suffered from symptoms such as blindness and amputations due to diabetes, which plagues over 30 million Americans, according to the American Diabetes Association.

“When I got the news I didn’t do what I should have done right away,” she admitted to Fox News. “I cheated for another year. And then after that I said, ‘Who you trying to kill, yourself?'”

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Eventually, the performer took a hard look at her eating and exercise habits and made a promise to live a healthy lifestyle.

“I changed my way of living, eating and thinking,” the multi-Grammy winner revealed.

More than 1.5 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes every year, and LaBelle is on a mission to spread awareness and education about diabetes.

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Though she’s lived with diabetes for more than two decades, she said she is doing just fine.

“I think I am pretty fierce at 73. I’m pretty good,” LaBelle joked.

This Fox News piece is used by permission.

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(photo credit, homepage image: Goddard’s 50 Year Anniversary Dinner, CC BY 2.0, by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)