Cone Health clinic fights diabetes in Rockingham County – Greensboro News & Record

REIDSVILLE Since Fall 2015, the Cone Health Nutrition and Diabetes Management Center in Reidsville has been tackling diabetes head on as the first clinic of its kind in Rockingham County.

We provide education to patients that have diabetes and other medical problems, said Penny Crumpton, registered dietician and certified diabetes educator with the center. Our goal is to try to help provide knowledge and education to those who need assistance in helping improve their diabetes and reducing the complications that we know diabetes can cause.

According to Crumpton, diabetes is a serious issue in Rockingham County.

The rates of diabetes are extremely high in Rockingham County so the need is very great in terms of reaching out to those who are most in need, Crumpton said. While we educate patients with diabetes, we also try to reach out and address the epidemic of pre-diabetes that certainly puts patients at high risk for developing diabetes down the road.

Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to long time and irreversible problems, including damage to the eyes and kidneys, cardiovascular complications and peripheral vascular disease.

In the year and a half since the center opened, Crumpton and Gebre Nida, the centers endocrinologist, have been working with patients to help address those problems.

At the office, patients can come for one-on-one counseling sessions to discuss their situation or guests can attend free community education classes at 9 a.m. on the first and third Monday of the month at Annie Penn Hospital.

Yet with diabetes a prevalent problem in the area, Crumpton and Nida are pushing for awareness through the diabetes task force. This task force unites local health care providers and other community stakeholders around making a change.

Were working through the diabetes task force to try to increase the public awareness of the rates of diabetes and getting the resources more visible to the community and being able to connect patients with resources, Crumpton said.

For Norbert Hector, the center has already made a difference in his life after visiting the center for the first time in February.

According to Hector, he was diagnosed with diabetes about 20 years ago and has been on insulin for about 11 years.

About two months ago, my readings became very erratic, and so I called (my primary care provider) and tried to do some self-adjusting and really messed it up, he said.

His doctor referred him to Nida at the Cone Health Nutrition and Diabetes Management Center in Reidsville.

As a diabetic, I had been concerned about it, Hector said. I know its a progressive disease, and Ive watched other diabetics including my brother get progressively worse and my brother eventually died.

By following the directions given to him by Nida and Crumpton and with the support of his wife, Hector has already seen improvements in his condition.

I feel a lot more optimistic now than I did two months ago, he said.

As the center creates more stories like Hectors and the practice builds, they will consider adding another endocrinologist and diabetes educator to widen the centers impact and reach the growing population affected by diabetes.

For more information about the Cone Health Nutrition and Diabetes Management Center in Reidsville, call 336-951-6070 or visit the center at 1107 S. Main St., Reidsville.

You have nothing to lose and whole lot to gain, Hector said. Give it a shot.

Contact JustynMelrose at (336) 349 -4331, ext. 6140 and follow@jljmelrose on Twitter.

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Cone Health clinic fights diabetes in Rockingham County - Greensboro News & Record