Blood Sugar Rising

Blood Sugar Rising is a PBS special from WGBH, about the diabetes epidemic in the United States. This clip explains the disease, and how it affects the body, outlining the important role played by the hormone insulin, as well as the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

One thing that people with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes have in common, is the need to watch their carbohydrate intake. Learning how to read food labels when grocery shopping is a powerful tool for diabetics trying to manage their disease. This is a clip from Blood Sugar Rising, a PBS special from WGBH about the diabetes epidemic in the United States.

This clip, from the PBS special Blood Sugar Rising, outlines the amazing breakthroughs in diabetes-related technology in the last 5 decades. From the glucose meter in the early 1980s, to Ed Damiano’s bionic pancreas, these are medical advances that are crucial to managing the disease and saving countless lives.

Today, the average American has access to unlimited calories, which was not the case, even a few hundred years ago. How much sugar does the average American eat, and how are we being affected by the rapidly changing environments that we live in? Watch this clip from Blood Sugar Rising, a PBS special from WGBH, and find out.

In the United States, it's estimated that 100 million people are affected by a blood sugar problem. Watch this clip from Blood Sugar Rising, a PBS special from WGBH, and learn about the alarming increase in this country of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

In the past few decades insulin prices have skyrocketed. Watch this clip, from the PBS special Blood Sugar Rising, to find out more about how the prices for insulin are set, the finger-pointing taking place between the manufacturers and pharmacy benefits managers, and how those with no insurance must pay the price.

This clip from the PBS special, Blood Sugar Rising, makes the case that the environments that we live in are structured to create inequity. Rural areas, indigenous communities, and other lower income communities, have a higher prevalence of diabetes (and other diseases) because of the lack of access to healthy foods.

The Bigger Picture Project is a collaboration between Dr. Dean Schillinger and Youth Speaks, youth of color who use poetry to tell the story of the bigger picture behind the diabetes epidemic. Workshops with youth are based around poetry, and topics such as health and food accessibility. Blood Sugar Rising is a PBS special from WGBH, about the diabetes epidemic in the United States.