- Lead singer Nick Jonas has been living with type 1 diabetes for 20 years.
- The group's “JONAS20: Greetings from Your Hometown Tour” celebrates its 20th anniversary concurrent with Nick Jonas’s two-decade experience with diabetes.
- Nick Jonas shares how both milestones have influenced his life and how he leverages his music to promote understanding for type 1 diabetes.
In 2025, the number 20 holds particular meaning for iconic singer Nick Jonas.
As the Jonas Brothers celebrate their 20th year together, 2025 also marks 20 years since their frontman's type 1 diabetes diagnosis.
“It’s crazy how it lined up,” the singer stated. “It’s been a wild journey in both… regarding the band, it’s been the adventure of a lifetime, and we’ve been so blessed to be able to do this for 20 years now and to have the support of the world’s greatest fans.”
Alongside the band’s experience over the last 20 years, he said he has had wonderful and challenging moments living with diabetes. The difficulties of controlling his disease have been the lows, while advocating and engaging others as a spokesperson and through his non-profit have been a source of happiness.
“In summary, I’m really grateful to have been able to be transparent about [type 1] and to interact with all these amazing people from all corners of the world who are navigating their own diabetes journey, and it’s a really big thing to feel like you’re a little less isolated in it,” he added.
Nick Jonas’ A1C Shoutout to Fans
To thank his fans, on World Diabetes Day (November 14), he stepped onto the platform during a Jonas Brothers concert and delighted his audience by sharing an uplifting message of hope, along with a mention to his A1C.
“My A1C, which is a collection of numbers over a three-month period, was the most favorable it’s ever been, in fact, most recently,” he revealed.
The show was attended by members of a global community — a network of over 30,000 people globally who share their experiences with diabetes to help promote a message of resilience, perseverance, and optimism.
“It was really meaningful for me to get to use the Jonas Brothers’ platform as a place to speak about something that’s clearly very personal to me and on World Diabetes Day, I think it’s fitting to get reflective and to explore kind of what life looks like for me as a now 33-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 significant time for me to get to speak on stage like that and play a song that I wrote about these challenges when I was 14 and to see the effect it still has to this day with the fan base,” he said.
While the song has assumed a new meaning for him as an adult, he said it is still relevant.
“Now I [have] this vast, supportive community that I belong to that has supported me in so many different moments. I think my perspective is perhaps a lot more optimistic now. It is feasible to live a big, busy life while living with this disease and outlook and viewpoint and all that is an essential piece to persevering.”
Advancements in Type 1 Diabetes
In the past, life with type 1 diabetes meant more than five daily shots a day and glucose checks 10 or more times daily. This was a constant cycle of injections, guesswork, and vigilance, according to a licensed endocrinologist.
“Delivery devices superseded multiple daily insulin injections. With time, insulin pumps became less bulky and smarter, and eventually learned to ‘communicate’ with the glucose monitors,” the doctor noted.
“Algorithms began adjusting insulin on their own, creating hybrid ‘automated delivery’ systems that alleviate some of the mental burden people with type 1 carry 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 who I’m traveling away from is just an incredible thing,” he said.
Alongside technology, new treatments aimed at controlling the condition and slowing or altering the disease itself are in development.
“The first immune-therapy capable of delaying type 1’s onset was authorized, and research into protecting or even replacing the body’s insulin-producing cells acquired real traction. In labs around the world, scientists are growing lab-grown pancreatic beta cells and testing ways to shield them from immune attack,” said the specialist.
“Smart insulin” is also being developed to become active only when glucose levels rises, offering a future where insulin works as intuitively as the body once did.
“Further progress will absolutely continue to emerge. We’re no longer just enhancing devices; we’re getting nearer to transforming the disease itself,” the physician stated.
However, while another medical professional agrees that further advancements will continue to develop, he notes that managing type 1 diabetes remains an intensive undertaking — physically, mentally, and psychologically.
“I truly hope that we’ll see more and more focus to talking about and addressing the burdens and the requirements of having and managing T1D. We need much more of that, too,” he told.
The Singer Employs Self-Care to Control His Diabetes
Beyond medication and technology, Jonas discussed some approaches he leans 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, recalibrate, 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 practice this early during his diagnosis.
Recently, he has focused on taking vitamins, looking after his skin, and staying hydrated.
“It’s a simple thing, but the more water I drink, my glucose levels are more stable. I don’t know precisely why, but I just find that drinking water has a lot of health benefits,” he noted. “I didn’t put as much emphasis on it earlier in my life as I do now, and it’s been really beneficial.”
He also walks daily for 30 minutes or longer for his physical, mental, and psychological health.
“It really grounds me and even when it’s cold out, getting out in the open air is really important when a lot of my day, too, is spent inside for hours at a concert hall or on a movie location or something,” he said.
He leans on his therapist frequently, too.
“I think it’s really important to do that self-work,” Jonas said.
Most of all, he urges everyone living with type 1 diabetes to engage with the diabetes community.
“There will be good days, there will be tough days, but you can scale this mountain, and there’s some remarkable people out there whose stories will really inspire anybody that’s going through difficult times,” he concluded.
