Inside the ADA Forecast

This could be Miss America, circa 1959. As you can see, some parts of the fashion industry were much the same, aka the stick figures. The main difference is they wore more clothing back then so you couldn't see how thin they actually were...

From the inside 'blurb:

The attractive blond cover girl holding the 1958 diabetes week poster is Ann Horne. Although diabetic, Ann holds down a full time job as a New York fashion model. She taken insulin daily, watches her diet, and gets the right amount of exercise and rest-in spite of the rigorous demands of her job. Ann is living proof treat diabetes need not bar anyone from pursuing a chosen career.

I wonder what happened to Ann and all those other confident Forecast folks. I hope they lived a long and happy life,and are maybe even alive today. But I also wonder if maybe they weren't as bullet-proof as they presented.(fashion model-diabetic equals a very labile situation for any young women)

Because,honestly, what PWD does not have occasional(and sometimes, more then occasional) dietary splurges? Who doesn't get stressed and overworked and too busy to exercise? Who doesn't have severe low blood sugars? The people in Forecast all said they were in excellent control of their diabetes...which definatly wasn't true, even knowing what we know today(higher blood sugars, higher a1cs, etc.) I wasn't around back then, but I've read autobiographies of type 1's that were and admitting that you were anything less then perfect was just not acceptable. No one confessed to the Sundae-Mars Bar-a-thons, and no one really knew how to do it right. We have better tools today then they did back then. Most of them probably died from complications,a fact glossed over and ignored by the ADA editors of the day. Forecast gave PWD back then a tremendous moral boost, even if 1/2 of it was really not true. In 1964 a young relative of mine died, of DKA.(she hadn't been diagnosed yet so no one knew what it was) Much is still the same..DKA still kills.(10% mortality rate?) It's interesting reading the old Forecast magazines, they actually listed all the names of big-time donors(over $1!) weird sugar-free recipes,(well,that part hasn't changed from 50 years later) and "Dave's Diary" ( a guy that has juvenile diabetes and reports on all the events in his life, in this particular issue Dave tests his aunt's urine and finds she has diabetes,aunt shores her act up, loses weight and regains her health; he also goes on a picnic with his fiancee' Marge and has absolutely perfect control over his diabetes because he ate "just the right things") It really gives a glimpse into the strange diabetic world of the late 40's-60's. I have only found a few of these issues on Ebay, most from the 40's and 60's(this was my first one found in the 50's). Needless to say, they are rarer then hen's teeth and a complete lot of them probably doesn't exist though I'm trying my best to get them all. I had a bunch from the 80s-90s but I gave them to someone else, because they were 2 big boxes and threatening to take over what little room I had at the time. I just want the older ones now...from both a sentimental point and a financial point,a complete set would probably be worth some big bucks. I just got this issue,they only pop up on Ebay every few years. Because I haven't lived that long, nor know any older individuals who are spring-cleaning their magazine collections Ebay is the only place I've been able to find any.