Mon General’s Diabetes Prevention Program receives CDC recognition

Mon General Hospital’s Diabetes Prevention Program has achieved full recognition status from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Diabetes Prevention Recognition Program.

Mon General’s Diabetes Prevention Program is one of two fully recognized programs in West Virginia, and the only one in Northcentral West Virginia. 

The CDC based program is an evidence-based series of classes designed for people with prediabetes. These high-quality lifestyle change programs help participants reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes and improve their overall health.

“Achieving full recognition was largely due to the participants’ hard work and diligence to prevent type 2 diabetes in their lives,” said Andrea McCarty, Diabetes Education Coordinator at Mon General. “In order to achieve full recognition, the program participants had to reach and maintain to the end of the program a five percent weight loss, attend 80 percent or more of the 24 sessions and record physical activity weekly.”

The Mon General program is offered free-of-charge to those who qualify. To qualify, a person must be at high risk for developing diabetes, or have been diagnosed by a physician as someone with prediabetes. A combination of risk factors such as family history, being overweight or obese, gestational diabetes and inactivity may also put a person at risk and therefore make them eligible for the program.

Mon General Hospital’s Diabetes Learning Center has been offering the Diabetes Prevention Program since May 2013.

The year-long program provides education and support to individuals who are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Participants learn to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles by eating right, increasing physical activity and losing a modest amount of weight.

According to the CDC, 86-million Americans have pre-diabetes, and 90 percent may not even know they have it.  Without intervention, as many as 30 percent of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within five years.

Having prediabetes means your blood glucose (sugar) levels are higher than normal - but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetic. Prediabetes can lead to heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes. Prediabetes can often be reversed.

With type 2 diabetes, your body cannot properly use insulin (a hormone that helps glucose get into the cells of the body). You can get type 2 diabetes at any age, but you are at higher risk if you are older, overweight, have a family history of diabetes, are not physically active, or are a woman who had gestational diabetes.

To learn more about the Diabetes Prevention Program, call the Diabetes Learning Center of Mon General at 304-598-1805 or visit MonGeneral.com/Diabetes.