Diabetes prevention help offered – Burlington Times News

Kyle Lubinsky / Times-News

Alamance Regional Medical Center has partnered with the county health department to teach a class directed toward diabetes prevention in nine area counties.

Diabetes affects a startling number of people in the United States: Nearly 30 million Americans have it.

In North Carolina, its about 1,075,855, roughly 13.1 percent of the adult population. An additional 2.6 million, or 36.1 percent of adults, have pre-diabetes, which means they have high blood glucose levels that arent quite high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.

We hear it all the time, that we have to eat right and exercise, said Rachel Marquez, master trainer for the diabetes program. However, its about small, sustainable life changes.

The class started in 2015, and so far has seen six groups complete the year-long program. Each program is open to people who are pre-diabetic, and each section is limited to 15 people, although Marquez says she usually averages seven to eight at any given time.

Initially, the program was held at Blessed Sacrament Church. After seeing positive results, the hospital decided to open a class to employees at ARMC. The current class, which graduated Feb. 16, consisted of 14 participants who lost an average of 5.5 percent of their body weight. That reduces individual chances of developing diabetes by 50 to 70 percent.

Marquez has seen a wide variety of participants with a wide variety of motives for taking the class everything from wanting to play with their grandchildren to wanting to get off of their medication. The class has given many of those involved results: Marquez has noticed weight loss and a general decrease in pain in participants at the end of the year.

Rick Settle is one such participant. The registered phlebotomist goes out into the local community around the hospital and tests blood for syphilis and hepatitis C. Over the past few years, his hemoglobin A1C test, which is used to determine whether an adult is diabetic, revealed that he was pre-diabetic. When the program was opened to employees, he ran into Marquez, who encouraged him to join.

Over the next year, Settle lost 43 pounds, and his A1C levels when back down to a healthy number. The positive atmosphere in the class helped him to push through tough times it felt as if everyone was working toward a common goal.

The best part was the encouragement, Settle said. It wasnt as much a competition as it was encouragement. The pounds came off when I watched what I was eating.

The class encouraged Settle and other participants to count their fat grams as they are the most important part of losing weight and keeping it off. It also helped him to form good habits, and the knee problems he had when starting the program have lessened as well.

The main benefit that I saw was a result of the weight loss, he said. As long as I can keep this going, I wont have to take any medication.

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Diabetes prevention help offered - Burlington Times News