Bears QB Jay Cutler meets with teens affected by diabetes at Kovler Diabetes Center on World Diabetes Day

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler visited the University of Chicago's Kovler Diabetes Center on World Diabetes Day, Saturday, November 14, to share his experience with diabetes with teens affected by the disease and tour some of the world’s leading diabetes-research laboratories.

Cutler, 26, was diagnosed in April, 2008, with type 1 diabetes and has since become a spokesperson for the disease and an advocate for more research. As part of his outreach to diabetes sufferers, he recently recorded six videos that detail his experience with diabetes, its impact on his life and sports career, and how he manages the disease as a professional athlete.

At Kovler, Cutler met with about 20 teens who also have type 1 diabetes. He shared tips on managing the disease while maintaining an athletic lifestyle. Cutler, the patients and their parents also toured the research laboratories at the Kovler Diabetes Center to observe cutting-edge science that is improving the understanding and treatment of the disease.

“When I was first diagnosed it was a Wednesday, and I was by myself,” said Cutler on one of the videos. “It’s tough,” he added. “My mother cried for two days straight.”

But he quickly learned to live with it and now he wants to “inspire kids that got diabetes at four, five, six years old and they think it's the end of the world, that they can’t have dreams and do what they want to do in life--and that’s entirely false.”

“We were delighted to have Jay Cutler visit the University and spend time with us,” said Louis Philipson, MD, PhD, director of the Kovler Diabetes Center. “Meeting a high-profile athlete, the starting quarterback for an NFL team, helps drive home that this is a disease that people can not only live with but, with vigilance and state-of-the-art medical care, accomplish remarkable things.”