- Lead singer Nick Jonas has managed type 1 diabetes for 20 years.
- The band's “JONAS20: Greetings from Your Hometown Tour” marks its 20th anniversary alongside Nick Jonas’s two-decade experience with diabetes.
- Nick Jonas discusses how both milestones have influenced his life and how he uses his music to promote understanding for type 1 diabetes.
In 2025, the number 20 carries special significance for renowned artist Nick Jonas.
As the Jonas Brothers celebrate their 20th year as a band, 2025 also marks 20 years since their lead singer's type 1 diabetes discovery.
“It’s crazy how it lined up,” Jonas remarked. “It’s been a wild journey in both… regarding the band, it’s been the ride of a lifetime, and we’ve been so fortunate to be able to do this for 20 years now and to have the support of the most amazing fans.”
Parallel to the band’s experience over the last two decades, he said he has had great and tough moments managing diabetes. The struggles of managing his condition have been the lows, while advocating and engaging others through his role and through his foundation have been a source of happiness.
“Overall, I’m really grateful to have been able to be open about [type 1] and to connect with all these amazing people from all corners of the world who are experiencing their own diabetes path, and it’s a really big thing to feel like you’re a little less alone in it,” said Jonas.
The Singer's A1C Announcement to Fans
To show appreciation to supporters, on World Diabetes Day (November 14), he took to the stage during a Jonas Brothers concert and delighted his audience by sharing an uplifting message of hope, accompanied by a shout-out to his A1C.
“My A1C, which is a collection of numbers over a three-month period, was the best it’s ever been, in fact, most recently,” he revealed.
The show was visited by members of a worldwide group — a network of more than 30,000 people globally who discuss their experiences with diabetes to help spread a message of strength, perseverance, and optimism.
“It was really special for me to get to use the Jonas Brothers’ stage as a place to speak about something that’s clearly very important to me and on World Diabetes Day, I think it’s fitting to get introspective and to explore sort of what life looks like for me as a now thirty-three-year-old person living with this disease,” he said.
Jonas offered the song “A Little Bit Longer” — a melody he wrote early in his career and diabetes journey, to those affected by the disease.
“It’s a really important time for me to get to speak on stage like that and play a song that I wrote about these experiences when I was 14 and to see the impact it still has to this day with the fan base,” he said.
While the song has taken on a new meaning for him as an adult, he said it is still relevant.
“Now I [have] this great, big community that I belong to that has supported me in so many various moments. I think my perspective is possibly a lot more optimistic now. It is feasible to live a big, busy life while living with this disease and outlook and perspective and all that is an important piece to persevering.”
Advancements in Type 1 Diabetes
Not long ago, life with type 1 diabetes involved more than five insulin injections a day and glucose checks 10 or more times daily. This was a never-ending cycle of needles, guesswork, and care, as stated by a licensed endocrinologist.
“Delivery devices superseded multiple daily insulin injections. With time, insulin pumps became less bulky and smarter, and eventually learned to ‘talk’ with the sensors,” the expert explained.
“Automated systems began modifying insulin automatically, creating hybrid ‘automated delivery’ systems that lift some of the mental burden people with type 1 bear every day.”
Jonas is impressed with how far technology has advanced since he was first diagnosed.
“The fact that I can receive real time readings of my glucose directly on my phone or smart watch or it can be [shared with] my wife or other family members when I am apart from is just an amazing thing,” he said.
Alongside technology, new therapies aimed at managing diabetes and delaying or altering the disease itself are in development.
“The first immunotherapy capable of delaying type 1’s start was approved, and research into protecting or even substituting the body’s insulin-producing cells gained real momentum. In labs around the world, scientists are growing stem-cell–derived pancreatic beta cells and experimenting with ways to protect them from immune attack,” the doctor continued.
“Smart insulin” is also being engineered to activate only when glucose levels increase, promising a future where insulin works as intuitively as the body once did.
“More advancements will absolutely continue to develop. We’re no longer just improving tools; we’re getting closer to transforming the disease itself,” the expert concluded.
Nevertheless, while a family physician concurs that further advancements will continue to appear, he points out that managing type 1 diabetes remains an intensive task — in terms of health, mentally, and emotionally.
“I sincerely hope that we’ll see more and more attention to talking about and addressing the challenges and the requirements of living with and controlling T1D. We need far more of that, too,” he commented.
Jonas Turns to Personal Wellness to Manage His Diabetes
In addition to medication and technology, Jonas shared some strategies he relies on to handle his diabetes.
To begin, he said he learned to be less hard on himself.
“You’re never going to have the ideal day while managing this disease and even if you’re super on top of your diabetes management, there are just things that are a little out of your control and being able to take a deep breath, reset, and know that it’s going to be OK on the other side is really important,” he said.
While this is hard to do at times, he said he learned to apply this soon after his diagnosis.
Lately, he has focused on taking vitamins, caring for his skin, and staying well-hydrated.
“It’s a simple thing, but the more water I drink, my glucose levels are better. I don’t know exactly why, but I just find that drinking water has a lot of health benefits,” said Jonas. “I didn’t put as much focus on it earlier in my life as I do now, and it’s been really helpful.”
He also walks daily for 30 minutes or longer for his physical, cognitive, and emotional health.
“It really centers me and even when it’s cold out, getting out in the fresh air is really important when a lot of my day, too, is spent indoors for hours at a venue or on a film set or something,” he said.
He relies on his therapist regularly, too.
“I think it’s really important to do that personal development,” Jonas said.
Above all, he encourages everyone managing type 1 diabetes to engage with the diabetes community.
“There will be good days, there will be challenging days, but you can scale this mountain, and there’s some remarkable people out there whose experiences will really inspire anybody that’s going through difficult times,” said Jonas.
