Damon Wayans on Diabetes: “Know what’s going on inside you”

Damon Wayans wants you to take diabetes seriously. The funnyman has been living with the disease for almost two decades, and in a conversation with PEOPLE, he talks about how he lives with the diagnosis. The My Wife & Kids star has teamed with biotechnology company Genentech to launch "All Eyes on DME," a new multi-channel awareness campaign aimed at destigmatizing diabetes-related vision conditions and encouraging proactive eye care.

“When I got diagnosed with diabetes, I needed triage,” explains Wayans. “I needed to take insulin. I had to change my diet and get into exercise because my sugar was at 535, which is not sustainable. Just knowing that then set me on a path to learning more about what I can do to control it and the things that I can't do and need to let a doctor do.”

Wayans says that he went to the hospital, and they explained that he was on the verge of a diabetic coma. He knew that his life had to change. 

“We have a lot of fears where I come from,” Wayans says. “With hospitals and doctors and taking care of your health. We tend to like to do things ourselves, so someone would go get some eyeglasses from the drugstore and have the eyes like this, and they think that that's enough, and it's not.”

Wayans understands that people may think that eyeglasses are a temporary solution, but urges everyone to “know what's going on inside of you.”

“Especially if there's treatments that can actually help you to alleviate and keep your vision long-term,” he explains. “I found out it affects Black and brown people two to three times more for vision loss, which is terrible. It's something that is not really discussed in those communities. It's nice to be able to maybe have a voice and lend it to something that's important.”

“There's no crime in knowing,” he adds. “Once you know, then you can go about and try and do it your way.”

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