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If you've been reading recent news headlines, you know that Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson died Monday, January 4. According to police Officer Sara Faden, "It appears to be a natural death... There's no evidence of foul play." The 30-year-old socialite and party girl was purportedly engaged to Tila Tequila, and has a young daughter.
For us, there's more to this tragedy. Johnson was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at 8 years old. One source told Fox411.com that Johnson "had very severe diabetes and was not taking care of herself properly...With her condition she should have been closely monitoring her health, taking insulin, monitoring blood sugar levels, and she wasn't." In addition to neglecting her diabetes control, she also has a history of alcohol and drug abuse, which dramatically complicates diabetes management. Several sources report that Casey had been hospitalized several times for diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a complication of severely insufficient insulin that can lead to vomiting, coma, or even death. DKA is described in this article by Dr. Fran Cogen, and you can read about Ginger's DKA story here. Because of her history of substance abuse and poor diabetes control, most believe that Casey's death is the result of not taking insulin. The media has not mentioned whether this is related to diabulimia--an eating disorder characterized by not taking insulin in order to lose weight--or another mental illness that led her to stop taking her insulin.
While Casey Johnson's death is saddening, she has used her celebrity to help the diabetes community. Her father Robert Wood Johnson is the Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and in 1994 she co-wrote a book with her parents called Managing Your Child's Diabetes.
The bottom line: if you're having trouble with managing your diabetes, ask for help. But while diabetes is something you have to take very seriously, don't be scared or pessimistic because of Casey's death; on the contrary, use her story as inspiration to treat your body and your diabetes to the best of your ability.
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