Amazing Race has a Type 1 Diabetic Competing

She might be bringing it up and it could be edited. Or she might not want to bring it up and the editors are waiting for her to bring it up. Either way…that stinks!

I can’t speak to the full history of The Amazing Race because I’ve only been watching for a few years, but they’ve had contestants with various conditions before.



In the 14th season, one of the racers was deaf, and that came up pretty frequently since it had a big impact on how he approached the race. The next season, one of the contestants had Asperger’s, but it didn’t have much of an effect on his performance and wasn’t mentioned all that much. In both cases, I think the show did a reasonable job of presenting those racers as whole people.



At any rate, I suspect that we’ll hear more about Nat’s diabetes if it affects her race performance or as other teams are eliminated and she gets more screen time. But that’s just a guess.

i remember watching this and feeling a great sense of relief for her when the sheep’s head came out because it’s carb free :slight_smile:

after watching them compete it seems impossible to stay in tight control while doing something like this, so you just have to make sure you don’t go too high or too low, and try not to to obsess if you’re a little out of range - probably better to keep things a little high since there’s a lot of impromptu running involved. she might have to say the hell with her next A1C - the experience she’s having is definitely worth a month of wacky #s.

it would be cool if we could contact her and have her post on the tu forum about her trip and how she managed it.

The two times it has shown something of her diabetes she has been testing, and not surprisingly both times she was high.

I’m rooting for this team to win, though. They are my favourite regardless of one of them being a Type 1 diabetic!

There’s also some bonus footage of Nat testing her blood sugar: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/video/?pid=6VX3qS3XvXt2XjKjkzwvs7RG3iFxbqjG&vs=homepage&play=true

I really like this scene. I’m sure we can all relate, and it’s a bit of education for people less familiar with diabetes.

I found this clip on youtube with Nat talking about her T1 in a more detailed way, you can see her pump, she’s been T1 for 20 years, just amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkHIZixbdvw&feature=channel

Awesome footage, Santiago - thanks for the link. I couldn’t get at the Amazing Race clip as it was blocked but that Youtube clip was great. I wonder if Kat ever gets jealous of the media attention her partner gets. The Amazing Race site also gives a bio of both girls and how they both have huge med school debts that this million dollar win would not even cover!
It would be so cool if Nat would tap into tuD.

WAHOOO!
That’s great. I hope they win! Thanks for the update! I have a feeling that they are going to win. With Bowersox in 2nd and B.Michaels in 1st…I think this is our (D) era in reality television.
:slight_smile:

what do you mean by fake food? Like an imitation meat? Or was it plastic display food?

Number 1…That’s SO cool!

I’m a type 1 diabetic on the pump and am kinda annoyed at the big deal it seems like they’re pointing out of a diabetic on the show. I travel a fair amount so I have to deal with keeping my insulin cool for up to 8 hour flights and I find that to be the biggest challenge that would impede traveling. I’m used to dealing with unknown carb amounts at meals and irregular schedules and still maintain decent levels.
The one thing the show hasn’t covered is who is managing the upkeep of her insulin. Considering the places they’re going I don’t think she’s got a nice ice pack to help her keep it cool, so I imagine the production crew is holding onto it and she’s able to refill at check points and such. Not that big of a deal to me when you have someone to take the most difficult bit of the work off your hands.

She has an insulin pump.

I might be wrong but…even though the show airs once a week, It is actually one day for every episode. So if it is a 12 episode season then she is only traveling for about 12 days not 12 weeks. That would only require one or two pump refills or I would assume less. I doubt the crew helps that much.

Uhhh pity I can’t watch it!

david, they don’t really make it into a big deal on the show. they’ve barely mentioned it at all. they didn’t even mention it during the last episode where she practically had to eat her way through a chinese buffet, only stopping when she found a certain item. it is a big deal to me to see her compete. not to downplay the challenges a t1 faces on business travel, of which there are many, but what they do on the show isn’t the same. they may compete in a physically exhausting challenge, an eating competition, or fly across the world at a moment’s notice.

as for the challenge of insulin supplies, i would imagine the producers of the show would provide some assistance if necessary, but it’s never mentioned.

anyway, it’s great to see them not only surviving, but winning many of the challenges. for me, and, from the looks of it, many other people in the community, it really helps hammer in the message that diabetes and an adventurous/spontaneous life can co-exist.

Yeah I know they don’t make a big deal out of it, but it’s still mentioned. And that’s what mostly bothers me is that we don’t know who’s handling the supplies.

Mikey: the race is up to 28 days long I believe they’ve said. There’s no way with the amount of traveling and pit stop lengths that it’s only 12 days. I’d estimate up to three days per episode.