Marvin Isley

[Franky69uk]

Marvin Islely of the Isley Brothers has died at the age of 57. In an interview with the Atlanta journal in 2001 he is quoted as saying :


In a 2001 interview, Marvin Isley told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he regretted spending decades ignoring his diabetes.

"If I would have listened, if I would have understood diabetes like I understood music, maybe these things wouldn't have happened," he said.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2010 ... z0qFSi0N00
He apparently had diabetes complications involving a stroke, high blood pressure, loss of both legs and a hand.
Wow that is really scary. What a warning to us all as to what can happen if we ignore/neglect this dsease. Makes me more determined that even to fight it and I'm 71.
frank

 

[noblehead]

Frank,

Its a lesson to us all to take better control of our diabetes and take the condition serious, but not so that it interferes and dominates our lives entirely, but there's no disputing that good control from the onset of diagnosis does lessen the chances of long-term complications.

Sad to Learn of Marvin's passing!

Nigel

 

[Franky69uk]

Thanks for your response noblehead. I agree with you entirely that the condition should not rule our lives. But as one who was diagnosed as T2 in 2006 and who rather stupidly thought it was nothing to worry about and who also carried on with the same eating habits, I have only come to realise how serious the conditon can be very late in the day..only in January 2010 for example..since then I have totally altered my diet through testing and now very rarely have a reading of over 7 (started out with one of 15). Happenings like this tend to pull us up sharply and make you realise that if you do ignore the condition the results are almost inevitable. Just hope I'm not too late.
Like you I am so sorry to hear of his passing.

 

[noblehead]

Frank,

I didn't take my diabetes serious for the first 10 years, pretty much did whatever I wanted, being a young lad I was more interested in having a good time by drinking and eating to excess, and chasing women! :roll:

Thankfully the last 20 years I have taken better care of my diabetes, more-so in the last 10-15 years, so like you I hope I didn't leave it to late. I wrote a post a while back that diabetes does preoccupy our everyday thoughts, never a hour goes by where I am not thinking about it in some way, although I suppose that is the nature of the beast we call 'diabetes'..............

I am not sure at what age Marvin got diabetes, but today's treatments and equipment are far removed from what they were 30-40 years ago, so one would hope the incidents of a early death through diabetes complications become rare in time, provided the patient takes their diabetes seriously.

Nigel

 

[RichardNY]

Its a shame to hear of his passing and every time I hear 'Harvest for the World' a very beautiful song in it's own right It will now be tinged with a link to diabetes and even though 'Summer Breeze' is a cover performed by the Isley brothers that will also get me thinking along the same lines and a connection to diabetes.

I know in many interviews he regretted just living his life and for a large part of it ignoring diabetes and was remorseful over his lapses. Some get the choice via early detection to take control. Others already have complications and are only then detected. Some ignore the diagnosis and hurtle through life taking all in their stride wether they succumb to complications or not. Some exert exceptional control only to find out that they too have complications. Others exert exceptional control and experience no complications. Since being diagnosed last year I have met and talked to at length local diabetics some with exceptional control and they are still having complications others have what I would consider poor control but have no problems at the moment even though they have been diabetic for decades. I still think the closer you get to a non-diabetic number is the best chance you have of beating diabetes but it's by no means a guarantee. Best tool in the box ...yes.

It may be a weird thing to say/think especially as I control my sugars pretty well and have been refining it even more over the last few days even thinking of giving Richard Bernstein's methods a try.......... but I wish I could just say to hell with it and live my life however long it is like that.

I know what you mean when you say its a wake up call and a warning to us all but in all honesty I still think we all individually need a certain amount of luck with diabetes as well as good control. It's never too late to start control either, a lot of us go years before we are even detected and complications are already well under way.

All the best.

Richard.


Life's a piece of ****,
When you look at it.
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show,
Keep 'em laughing as you go.

 

[Cowboyjim]

Another sad story of a great talent reduced to a premature demise due to poor health. Shame he could not have realised what enormous obligations he had to his millions of fans to keep healthier and make more great music.... and a shame his close friends could not have helped him control it properly. The music biz is fraught with many perils but DM is seldom mentioned alongside AIDS, drugs, booze etc. Don't know the story but as if we needed it there's another salutary warning to us all when tempted to ignore our condition.
Perhaps the publicity from his sad loss might warn others and save some lives.
Now let's hope there's an Isleys fan out there working on that magic bullet to fix DM... he/she could be inspired by his loss. 8)