"Law & Order" and "Chicago Med" star S. Epatha Merkerson is an activist for diabetes awareness.

Families need to talk about diabetes.

Epatha Merkerson’s story isn’t that different from a lot of people who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. However, her platform as an Tony, Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG and four-time NCAACP Image Award winner puts her center stage as an advocate for the America’s Diabetes Challenge: Get to Your Goals program.

“Diabetes was a part of my family,” Merkerson said following a luncheon at the Mint Museum Uptown for the America’s Diabetes Challenge. “We didn’t talk about it. I think what the America’s Diabetes Challenge is trying to do is to get people to be aware of it, so that we can start changing the statistics. Thirty million people have type 2 diabetes. Something is wrong. People are not getting information. This is a great way to disseminate information, and a way to help people see what type 2 diabetes is.”

Some people may not know what A1C is. There are tools for that.

“Our website www.americasdiabeteschallenge.com has this information that allows people to understand what A1C is,” said Merkerson, who is best known as New York Police Lt. Anita Van Buren on the long-running television drama “Law & Order” as well as NBC’s “Chicago Med.” “It’s a simple blood test that allows your doctor to see how you’re managing your treatment over a two-three month period. If you’re diabetic, you may take your blood sugar from two-to-six times a day. That just tells you what’s happening in the day. This allows you to come up with a treatment plan; to set and reach an A1C goal that is healthy.”

While Merkerson saw her family struggle with the disease—it cost her father grandmother their lives—it hit a deeper level when she received an unexpected diagnosis 14 years ago. She has since made it her mission to inform others about the disease to help them make better lifestyle choices now, as well as help those around them.

“That’s what we’re doing,” Merkerson said. “We’re challenging people to really know what type 2 diabetes is, so that young children like me growing up in a family with a history can have a better chance at taking care of themselves, because they have knowledge. They know what it is, and they won’t have to go through the things that I’ve gone through with my parents, and me personally, as a type 2 diabetic.”

An audience member questioned the prevalence of diabetes in men versus women. While the panel of experts said that the ratio was relatively even, certain ethnicities—such as African Americans—are impacted more than others.

“It is prevalent in my community, and I can speak from experience, and from my point of view,” Merkerson said. “It is prevalent in Hispanic/Latino, Pacific Islanders, Asian Americans, and so hopefully what we’re doing is we’re spreading [knowledge about] it not just [based on] gender or ethnicity, but the information. That’s what I think is most important here.”

Said Novant Health RN and Diabetes Center Nurse Educator Rene Henson, a panelist at the forum: “There is a genetic component—family history, but some of it has to do with environmental too.”

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in North Carolina. There are numerous other statistics illustrate the impact North Carolinians, but Merkerson shared that educating people and compelling them to action trumps the statistics.

“I could give you statistics about women [and] women who are pregnant,” Merkerson said. “I could give you statistics about African Americans, but I think in general about is 30 million people. That’s really what’s important, and these are the specifics of it. Thirty million people have type 2 diabetes. How can we get this information out to people so they understand the differences of high and low blood sugar, so they’ll know?”

Every case is different, but universal trends such as nutrition and activity remain constant.

“We asked people to write in to tell us what their common challenges were, and those are common: eating, exercising, sticking to the plan and coping with the disease,” Merkerson said. “That’s across the board. That shows no ethnicity. It’s what you need to know to manage a disease that you’re dealing with. The most important thing I could have ever learned is that it is manageable.”

On the Net:

www.americasdiabeteschallenge.com

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