Octavia Spencer Shares How She Found Out She Had Type 2 Diabetes

Octavia Spencer went in for a physical for an acting job and left with a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

The Oscar winner was in her 30s and hadn’t felt anything was wrong before the routine checkup. “Yeah, it was a shock,” she told Prevention for its November issue.

At the time, Spencer was overweight but felt healthy — a combination she now describes as “dangerous.”

How Octavia Spencer Found Out She Had Type 2 Diabetes

The physical was an insurance requirement ahead of filming a project, though Spencer can’t remember which one. What she does remember is how stunned she was when her fasting bloodwork showed her blood sugar was in the diabetes range. “But I was also close to 300 pounds,” she told the outlet.

Spencer, a self-described “Southern girl” who grew up in Alabama, wasn’t seeing a doctor regularly because she felt healthy. “I didn’t have any health issues at that point that I could feel,” she said. “I was very overweight, but I felt good, and that can be a dangerous combination.”

Type 2 diabetes can develop over years without noticeable symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An A1C test measures average blood sugar levels over the past two to three months, but patients shouldn’t assume it’s included in every blood draw.

“Patients should understand that an A1C is not routinely performed as part of a standard laboratory blood draw and will need to be specifically ordered by the clinician,” Scott Nass, MD, lead family medicine physician at SwiftCareMD, tells SheKnows.

Getting Her A1C Under Control After Diagnosis

After her diagnosis, Spencer’s first priority was getting her A1C under control. “So first, I had to get that controlled,” she said. “See, you don’t [always] feel bad when your A1C is high. There’s no pain.”

[Pull Quote: “There’s no pain.”]

For Spencer, that meant bringing her A1C down to what she called “textbook [levels].”

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends an A1C target of 7 percent or less for most people living with diabetes, though the right target may be higher or lower depending on factors such as age, health history, and the risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

Today, Spencer eats fewer refined carbs than she did before her diagnosis and exercises whenever she can. “Am I 100 percent on top of all that? No. Could I be better? I could be a lot better.”

Finding a doctor she felt comfortable with took some effort, too. Spencer said she had to “shop around” for someone who understood her anxiety about her health because she “can’t be nervous all the time.”

Why Spencer Asked for a uACR Kidney Test

Diabetes and high blood pressure both raise the risk of kidney disease, which is why Spencer asked her doctor for a uACR (urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio) test. It checks for albumin, a protein that can leak into urine when the kidneys’ filters are damaged. She said her results were normal.

“This matters because kidney disease is often silent in its early stages,” Craig Zebuda, MD, chief medical officer at Yunara Life, tells SheKnows. “Identifying damage early allows us to take steps to slow or sometimes prevent progression through better blood sugar and blood pressure management, lifestyle changes and kidney-protective medications when appropriate.”

Spencer would rather know where she stands. “Let’s say you get a diagnosis that you’re borderline; borderline can be helped!” she said.

She’s sharing that message through Detect the SOS Collective, a campaign in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, the American Diabetes Association, National Kidney Foundation, Mended Hearts, and WomenHeart. It encourages people with high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes to ask their doctors about uACR testing.

“This is my story. And I want to get as many people to hear this story as possible,” she said.

If you have type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure, these questions are worth bringing to your next appointment:

Managing Diabetes and High Blood Pressure Over Time

Spencer has lived with type 2 diabetes for about two decades and also manages high blood pressure.

“I’ve been managing it, but as I’m aging, it’s getting to feel like whack-a-mole keeping things in order,” she told People in January.

Her longtime friend Sofía Vergara participates in Detect the SOS as a caregiver advocate, and the two appeared together in a Super Bowl game-day ad about kidney screening. For Spencer, sharing her experience is a chance to reach people who might not think they need testing because, like her, they feel fine.

Spencer understands why people might put off a test out of fear, but she’d rather know what she’s dealing with.

“And even if you get a diagnosis that says right now you’re in kidney failure, wouldn’t you want to know that? There’s stuff that can be done!”