Diabetes is so common that you’d be hard pressed not to have a family member or close friend who’s living with it. Thankfully, through a combination of modern medicine and smart lifestyle choices, people can still lead full, active, healthy lives while keeping the disease at bay.
We also have good awareness campaigns like National Diabetes Month, which is observed throughout November and promotes timely and relevant diabetes-related information.
A staggering 38 million Americans currently live with diabetes, while an estimated 88 million — more than 1 in 3 — adults have prediabetes, a condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of those with prediabetes, 80% don’t realize they have it.
Given such troubling statistics, we at the Wright Center for Community Health are doing our part to combat diabetes locally — both through our primary care services and through our Lifestyle Medicine initiative, available at most of our health centers throughout Northeast Pennsylvania.
While medications and cutting-edge treatments play an important role in our long-term health, we should all be doing as much as we can to take a more proactive, rather than reactive, approach to our health. With that philosophy in mind, Lifestyle Medicine works with individuals and families to improve their health and quality of life by adopting and sustaining lifestyle behaviors that include eliminating tobacco use, improving diet, practicing stress relief techniques, increasing physical activity, strengthening personal relationships and connections, and adjusting sleep habits for better, more restorative rest.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, we partnered with the Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center and Quality Insights, a West Virginia-based leader in health care quality improvement, to offer the free, 26-session National Diabetes Prevention Program, designed to help individuals with prediabetes lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. To qualify, participants had to be 18 or older; have a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher (23 or higher for Asian American patients); have no prior diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes or end-stage kidney disease; and could not be pregnant.
Developed by the CDC, the National Diabetes Prevention Program has been shown to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58% for people 18-59 and by 71% for those 60 and older. A specially trained lifestyle coach led the program, teaching participants how to bolster their health through such lifestyle changes as improving diet, increasing physical activity and reducing stress levels. We were very pleased with the results of the program, as was Quality Insights, which recognized the Wright Center for it and our annual review of diabetes and prediabetes care.
We also recently received a Gold Award from the American Heart Association (AHA) for improving the quality of care for patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors through the Target: Type 2 Diabetes program. The program addresses heart disease and stroke risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes and puts the expertise of the AHA to work for health care organizations nationwide, helping ensure the care provided to patients is aligned with the latest evidence- and research-based guidelines.
We’re proud of being recognized for our efforts, and will continue working diligently to reduce the effects of diabetes locally.
Melissa Germano-Ryczak, M.S., RD, LDN, is the director of Lifestyle Modification and Preventive Medicine at the Wright Center for Community Health. Visit TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019 to schedule an appointment.