“It gave me the strength and toughness I needed for life”, noted actress Halle Berry states when discussing her Oscar and her diabetes.
Chicago, Illinois; August 31, 2006. Halley Berry, a longtime diabetic, won an Oscar for Monster’s Ball and a Golden Globe for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.
Was named seven times as one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People in the World.”
Won the Miss Teen All-American Pageant and was runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant.
And has appeared in over 10 major motion picture productions.
Yet the greatest stroke of luck during her 38 year-old life, according to Halle Berry, was when she was diagnosed with diabetes.
During the filming of the television sitcom Living Dolls in 1989, she collapsed and went into a week long coma. The diagnosis: diabetes.
Though the typical diabetic symptoms of fatigue, poor vision, tingling of the hands and feet were there, she lacked the most obvious visual clue to the illness – being overweight or obese.
The less obvious symptoms had been ignored.
Five years later, at a charity event held in Los Angeles in October, 2004, Ms. Berry described her health in unexpected terms.
“My teacher told me at the age of 10 that when I grew up, I was going to be given a gift. Diabetes turned out to be it. It gave me the strength and toughness I needed for my life.”
In fact, she’s been attributed to say that without the disease, she would never have had the stamina to achieve an Oscar.
Berry stresses three ways of overcoming diabetes: diet, exercise and giving back.
Regarding diet, she’s not without her weaknesses – her favorite foods being butter pecan ice cream and salt and vinegar potato chips. But she now eats them in only small quantities.
“I eat loads of wonderful fresh vegetables, chicken, fresh fish and pasta. I cut out red meat and cut back on fruit because it can contain quite a lot of sugar.
Her exercise regimen includes 60-90 minute workouts, four times per week, using the treadmill, free weights for arms and upper body strength and bench presses.
A special emphasis and least favorite exercise is the squat machine to deal with what she refers to as her problem legs and thighs.
And she gives back to other diabetics, with charity work for the Juvenile Diabetes Association.
“My life is not without pain and suffering”, she notes. “It is not without the good times and bad times, without great happiness and great sadness.”
But by turning a degenerative disease into a stroke of luck, she has overcome a sizeable obstacle and risen to the top.
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