Mon Health Medical Center offers free diabetes prevention program

Mon Health Medical Center's Diabetes Learning Center is offering a free series of National Diabetes Prevention Program classes beginning in late February.

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

"This program provides the education people need to prevent diabetes," said Andrea S. McCarty, MS, RD, LD, CDE, diabetes education coordinator at Mon Health Medical Center. "It is for people who do not have diabetes, but who have been told they are at high risk for getting it."

The first class will be Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 9 a.m. in the Mon Health Medical Center Conference Center. Pre-registration is required by calling 304-598-1805.

The program is an evidence-based series of classes funded by the CDC and the American Association of Diabetes Educators.

To qualify for the National Diabetes Prevention Program, a person must be at high risk for developing diabetes, or has been diagnosed by a physician 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.