Pete Doherty has revealed he has type 2 diabetes (Picture: Joshua Sammer/Getty Images for ZFF)
The Libertines rocker Pete Doherty has revealed he has type 2 diabetes despite his efforts to be healthier.
The 44-year-old indie musician – who has been open about his addiction struggles in the past – has given up his ‘main poisons’ in a bid to lead a better lifestyle.
However, he then realised that alcohol, cheese and sugar are ‘just as bad’ for you than his so-called ‘poisons’ – and Pete claims he was told he was healthier when ‘on heroin’.
Type 2 diabetes causes the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood to become too high. According to the NHS, it’s often linked to being overweight or inactive, or having a family history of the condition.
Pete told The Guardian’s Saturday magazine: ‘I gave up the main poisons and my health improved. Then you get told alcohol and cheese and sugar are just as bad and you were healthier when you were on heroin.’
His bandmate Carl Barat, 45, said, ‘Gluttony,’ and Pete agreed: ‘Yeah, I am a bit of a glutton. It’s not a joke. I’ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. And at the moment I’m lacking the discipline to tackle cholesterol.’
The 44-year-old singer has previously been open about his struggles with drug-addiction (Picture: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
The Libertines frontman has turned his life around over the past decade. This is him in 2010 at Leeds Festival (Picture: hirlaine Forrest/WireImage)
When Carl was asked if he was surprised that Pete is still here, he said: ‘Am I surprised Peter’s still alive? No, he’s too smart to die. He never intended to die.”
Pete added: ‘I always wanted to see the result of things. I don’t switch the telly off halfway through election night. I want to see what happens.”
Equally, Pete admitted there were times in the past when he was worried about Carl.
He said: ‘Yes. There were times I worried about him so much, particularly in the early days … He wasn’t very stable.’
Meanwhile, Carl believes he could have ADHD and said recently had some tests for it.
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Speaking about how he was very angry in his younger years, he said: ‘I’m certainly not as angry as I was, and I’m not a loose cannon.
‘There’s a lot going on there. I think they call it ADHD these days. I did a screening recently that said it’s likely. My wife keeps leaving books out with titles like “How to Deal with ADHD in a Marriage”.”
Pete replied: ‘They used to just call it personality. Now they’ve got all sorts of names for it.’
A person with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) has differences in brain activity, with symptoms including being impulsive, hyperactive, and having poor focus, attention, and organisational skills.
The Don’t Look Back Into The Sun hitmaker previously revealed he first took heroin in 2002, and it wasn’t long before drugs took ‘control’ of his life.
In The Libertines documentary Stranger in My Own Skin, released last year, Pete described how at the height of his addiction he even smuggled drugs into Japan inside his guitar case.
Pete previously said of how drugs ‘took control’ of his life (Picture: Kike Rincon. Pool/Europa Press via Getty Images)
The singer was arrested multiple times over the years for drugs-related charges (Picture: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
‘Hard drugs entered my life and slowly, slowly, and then very quickly, took control,’ the dad-of-three explained.
He managed to turn his life around over the last decade, however, he’s still conscious of the danger drug addiction still poses him.
‘It was a deep immersion in that life and there’s a great difference between being clean and being able to live happy and free, clean,’ he said.
‘I can be clean but I’m still putting time between that immersion and coming out of the waters.’
The musician previously revealed his addiction also almost cost him his own feet.
‘I was really pushing the limits. There were a few close calls really. I nearly lost my feet and horrible things like that,’ Pete told The Mirror.
Where to get help for heroin addiction
If you’re addicted to heroin and want to stop, you can ask a GP or local drug treatment service for help.
As someone with a drug addiction you’re entitled to the same confidential NHS care as anyone else who has a health problem.
If you’re not ready to stop, you can still get help with staying safe and healthy, according to the NHS website.
Risk of overdose and death is high with heroin. According to TalkToFrank, it kills ‘far more people in the UK than any other illegal drug’. Injecting heroin also risks developing blood clots and injections.
If you or someone else has taken heroin and experiences negative side effectsit’s important to get urgent medical help. Symptoms of a heroin overdose include:
blue lips
loss of consciousness
noisy, rasping or slow breathing
fitting or seizures
extreme mental confusion
hallucinations
Heroin addiction can develop quickly. Withdrawal symptoms include:
restlessness
muscle pain
bone pain
insomnia
diarrhoea
vomiting
hot and cold flushes
muscle spasms
uncontrollable shaking
‘It was very close, just because of the injecting. That’s what happens when you run out of veins. It all seems so long ago now though but it was a hell of a ride.’
On getting clean, he explained: ‘It was tough. There was no epiphany moment. It was so many years of going to rehabs and trying different ideas, I did everything from projectile vomiting at the Tham Krabok monastery in Thailand to clinics.
‘And people who have been in active addiction would say to me, “One day you’ll just know it’s the time to stop.” Somehow the balance has shifted.’
Over the years, the Babyshambles frontman has been arrested multiple times on drug-related charges, having also spent time in jail.
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