Heiress Casey Johnson, Diabetic, Dead at Age 30
By Barbara Lock, MDJanuary 05, 2010
Heiress and socialite Casey Johnson was found dead on Monday morning. She was 30 years old.
Johnson, of Johnson and Johnson fame, had type 1 diabetes, and reportedly had trouble with alcohol and drug addiction.
Johnson had gotten engaged to reality television star Tila Tequila three weeks ago. Her last tweet on twitter, on December 29, was upbeat: "Sweet dreams everyone. I'm getting a new car."
Persons with type 1 diabetes are at risk of something called ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis occurs in diabetics when the body breaks down fats and proteins for fuel at the cellular level. While this happens normally when someone is very hungry, in diabetics it happens even though there may be plenty of sugar in the bloodstream that their body could use for fuel: because type 1 diabetics lack insulin, which regulates the transportation of sugar (or glucose) into the cell, type 1 diabetics essentially cannot access their own blood sugar unless they get sufficient insulin.
Type 1 diabetics usually inject themselves with insulin using syringes, or use an insulin pump.
Diabetic Ketoacidosis is life-threatening without prompt and aggressive treatment, and is worsened by alcohol use, and by certain kinds of drug use (especially GHB).
Update February 4, 2010
Coroners report that Casey Johnson did indeed die of diabetic ketoacidosis.
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