Whenever the diabetes epidemic comes to mind, I picture the late Shirley Horn. The great jazz singer had a rich voice and beautiful phrasing; she also accompanied herself so brilliantly on the piano that a fellow jazz artist described her as having two heads. Tragically, Horn suffered from type 2 diabetes-and as her disease progressed, in 2002 she had a foot amputated. Deprived of the ability to pump the pedals, she mostly had to leave the piano playing to others. Eventually, Horn's diabetes was further complicated by breast cancer, and she died of a massive stroke in 2005 at age 71.
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