- Frontman 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 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 particular meaning for renowned artist Nick Jonas.
As the Jonas Brothers celebrate their 20th year together, 2025 simultaneously signifies 20 years since their lead singer's type 1 diabetes diagnosis.
“The alignment is remarkable,” the singer stated. “It's been an incredible ride in both… in the Brothers sense, 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 20 years, 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 as a spokesperson and through his foundation have been a source of happiness.
“In summary, I’m really thankful to have been able to be transparent about [type 1] and to interact with all these wonderful people from all regions 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 isolated in it,” he added.
The Singer's A1C Announcement to His Audience
To thank his fans, on World Diabetes Day (November 14), he took to the stage during a Jonas Brothers concert and delighted his audience by sharing an inspiring message of hope, along with a shout-out to his A1C.
“My A1C, which is a collection of numbers over a 90-day period, was the most favorable it’s ever been, in fact, most recently,” said Jonas.
The show was visited by members of a global community — a collective of more than 30,000 people globally who share their experiences with diabetes to help promote a message of strength, determination, 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 reflective and to tap into sort of what life looks like for me as a now thirty-three-year-old person living with this condition,” he said.
Jonas dedicated the song “A Little Bit Longer” — a tune he wrote early in his career and diabetes journey, to those living with 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 audience,” he said.
While the song has assumed a new meaning for him as an adult, he said it is still pertinent.
“Now I [have] this great, big community that I belong to that has supported me in so many different moments. I think my perspective is possibly a lot more positive now. It is possible to live a big, busy life while managing this disease and mindset and perspective and all that is an essential piece to powering through.”
Advancements in Type 1 Diabetes
Not long ago, life with type 1 diabetes meant more than five daily shots a day and glucose checks 10 or more times each day. This was a constant cycle of injections, estimation, and vigilance, as stated by a licensed endocrinologist.
“Delivery devices replaced 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.
“Automated systems began adjusting insulin on their own, creating hybrid ‘artificial pancreas’ systems that alleviate some of the cognitive load people with type 1 carry every day.”
Jonas is amazed with how far technology has advanced since he was first diagnosed.
“The fact that I can receive real time readings of my glucose straight to 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 amazing thing,” he said.
In addition to technology, new therapies aimed at managing diabetes and delaying or modifying the disease itself are being researched.
“The first immune-therapy capable of delaying type 1’s onset was approved, and research into protecting or even substituting the body’s insulin-producing cells acquired real momentum. In labs around the world, scientists are cultivating stem-cell–derived pancreatic beta cells and experimenting with ways to protect them from the body's defenses,” the doctor continued.
“Smart insulin” is also being engineered to become active only when blood sugar increase, offering a future where insulin works as naturally as the body once did.
“Further progress will definitely continue to develop. We’re no longer just improving tools; we’re getting closer to changing the disease itself,” the physician stated.
Nevertheless, while another medical professional concurs that additional innovations will continue to appear, he points out that managing type 1 diabetes remains an demanding task — in terms of health, cognitively, and emotionally.
“I truly hope that we’ll see more and more attention to talking about and addressing the burdens and the requirements of living with and managing T1D. We need much more of that, too,” he told.
Jonas Turns to Self-Care to Control His Diabetes
Beyond medication and technology, Jonas discussed some strategies he relies on to handle his diabetes.
First, he said he learned to take pressure off himself.
“You’re never going to have the perfect day living with 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 pause, 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 apply this soon after his diagnosis.
Recently, he has focused on taking vitamins, looking after his skin, and staying hydrated.
“It’s a basic thing, but the more water I drink, my glucose levels are better. I don’t know exactly why, but I just find that hydrating has a lot of health benefits,” he noted. “I didn’t put as much emphasis on it when I was younger as I do now, and it’s been really helpful.”
He also takes walks daily for 30 minutes or longer for his bodily, mental, and emotional health.
“It really grounds 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 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 vital to do that self-work,” Jonas said.
Above all, he encourages everyone living with type 1 diabetes to engage with the diabetes community.
“There will be positive days, there will be challenging days, but you can scale this challenge, and there’s some incredible people out there whose stories will really motivate anybody that’s going through tough moments,” said Jonas.
