13-03-2025
Lance Bass talks living with diabetes at SXSW 2025: 'Being a diabetic is a full-time job'
At 45, Lance Bass says he is "the healthiest I've ever been."
The singer, actor and entertainer best known for his time in NSYNC, came to South by Southwest on Tuesday to talk about chronic illness with Joe Nadglowski, president and CEO of the Obesity Action Coalition, and Dr. Geeta Nayyar, author of the book, "Dead Wrong: Diagnosing and Treating Healthcare's Misinformation Illness."
Bass has Type 1.5 diabetes, which is a rare form of diabetes similar to Type 1, but which appears as an adult instead of during childhood. He says his pancreas, the part of the body that produces and controls insulin, is "slowly on its way out. .... Mine has already said goodbye. We are going to throw it a goodbye party."
Five years ago, Bass felt so tired, like he didn't want to get out of bed, and he was always thirsty — two of the most common diabetes symptoms. Originally diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic, which shows up in adulthood and means the pancreas is still working, but not well, Bass was told by doctors he could reverse the diabetes if he would just diet and exercise.
While that might have been true for someone with Type 2 diabetes or who is prediabetic, that isn't the case for someone who is Type 1 or Type 1.5. "I do diet and exercise," he remembers thinking then. "All I do is eat broccoli and chicken anyways."
Dessert was never his thing, he said, but he does like salty things, especially chips and bread. "Bread is my thing. I guess I eat too much bread," he remembers thinking. His doctors tried a variety of medications, none of which worked, because they were all for a Type 2 diabetic not for someone who has Type 1 or Type 1.5. He lost 20 pounds and felt awful.
It's a type of diabetes few people know about, and Bass remembers he and his family thinking, "What is this?" They knew about Type 1 from his uncle, who had diabetes as a child. He just remembers Uncle Tim always having sugar-free desserts instead of the regular desserts. "I still didn't understand diabetes," Bass said, and it felt like "poor Uncle Tim" growing up.
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Bass, who lives with his husband and their 3-year-old twins mostly in Palm Springs, Calif., still travels a lot. After SXSW, he was heading to New York to watch bandmate Joey Fatone on Broadway before heading to Florida to be with his family. He and his NSYNC-mates have had a group text "since texting was a thing," and see each other often, including following each other's careers.
Bass is learning to manage his diabetes while on the road, which is not easy, he says, because he can't always time his meals, like when he arrived in Austin and needed food at 1 a.m. but had to wait an hour for his order. Having the glucose monitor allows him to know which foods raise his blood sugar levels and which ones aren't as sensitive, and how much insulin he will need. He has learned to eat more protein and make sure he doesn't let his blood sugar get too low. It's all about timing his insulin injections with the food he eats. He said he's not shy about giving himself an injection in public, even though some uninformed people might think he's doing drugs.
When his sugar is too low, Bass feels so tired, like waking up after anesthesia from surgery, he said: "I'm a dad of two 3-year-olds, I need all the energy I can muster."
He keeps glucose gel packets for emergencies, tries to eat some protein before bed so he his blood sugar won't get too low, but he does keep Reese's peanut butter cups by his bed for emergencies.
"Being a diabetic is a full-time job," he said. For 40 years, he didn't have to think about remembering to bring his insulin with him, but now if he forgets, he's limited in what he can eat.
Diabetes, he said, isn't going to stop him from eating a bite of his kids' birthday cake or his mother's cooking when he's home. "It's everything in moderation," he said.
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Bass has himself encountered misinformation about diabetes. He follows influencers on TikTok who talk about diabetes and even tried drinking vinegar and bought supplements.
"They always promise you something," he said
Bass, who has a partnership with Dexcom and wears the Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitor, tries to use his social media presence and fame to help normalize having diabetes or other chronic illnesses. "If I can use my platform to entertain you and give you good information, I think I've won," he said. "I never want people to think I'm giving medical advice."
When it comes to disinformation, Nayyar says people should ask themselves these questions:
Is it too good to be true? If so, it probably is.
Is the person offering you advice accountable? Doctors can lose their license and their reputations. Someone else doesn't have quite the risks.
What is the incentive? Are they making money off the advice?
Where is the advice coming from? Is there any medical information to back this up?
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When not talking about diabetes, Bass continues to find his way in the entertainment industry.
It's very different today than when NSYNC was starting, he said. Now people have many platforms like TikTok where they can get noticed instead of relying on a handful of record executives. He encourages people to build their fan bases, and they can have a long career.
"Don't worry about what other people think," he said. "I wasn't as confident. I was trying to please everyone so much. I had to hide parts of myself."
He has made 2025 his "year of yes," especially to traveling with his kids before they have to conform to a school-year schedule when they hit kindergarten.
He's very open with his kids about his diabetes and the "sugar bugs" that he has to watch, just like they have to watch them and brush them off their teeth.
For his kids, and for all the kids, especially the kids who have diabetes, he's trying to make diabetes "a little less scary."
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: NSYNC's Lance Bass at SXSW: 'Being a diabetic is a full-time job'
