Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Cara O’Neill

Clark County Health Department

Did you know that diabetes can lead to heart attack and stroke, blindness, or kidney failure?

Too much sugar in your blood can cause diabetes problems over time. High blood sugar can cause heart and blood vessel disease, which can lead to heart attack and stroke. Unfortunately, it does not stop there, damage to the eyes, is another side effect, which can lead to reduced vision or complete blindness. In addition, nerve damage and poor blood flow can cause foot problems, sometimes leading to amputation. Again, you can prevent or delay diabetes problems by keeping your blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol under control.

Have you been diagnosed with pre-diabetes?  If so, here are few things to think about.

A few alarming statistics:

• Every 23 seconds someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with diabetes.
• 86 million Americans are at risk for diabetes.
• Diabetes causes more deaths than AIDS and Breast Cancer combined!

As stated above, it is important to recognize that many times, type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed, as is most cases type 2 diabetes is not an abrupt diagnosis. As such, signs and symptoms present themselves over time in what doctors call metabolic syndrome. These include, increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Diabetes Prevention Recognition Program (DPRP) is a key component of the National Diabetes Prevention Program. This proven program can help people with prediabetes and/or at risk for type 2 diabetes make achievable and realistic lifestyle changes to cut their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. This statistic is based on losing 5%-7% of a person’s body weight, a two-hundred-pound person could lose ten to fourteen pounds, respectively. Oftentimes an achievable goal to be able to accomplish.

The Clark County Health Department, in conjunction with Floyd, Montgomery, and Powell Counties, have been scheduling Diabetes Self-Management Education Sessions also known as Health Living with Diabetes classes via Zoom, periodically throughout the calendar year. In 2023, the Clark County Health Department hopes to get a new cohort started for the National Diabetes Prevention Program. If interested in either one, call (859) 744-4482, ext. 1028,  Amy Williams, MS, RD, LD, LDE, or email  amyw.williams@ky.gov for more information.

*Information derived from CDC.

Clark County Health Department provides programs for the entire family, including Smoking Cessation, WIC, HANDS, family planning, immunizations, and home health care.  For more information on all of our service, please call 859/744-4482 or visit our website at www.clarkhealthdept.org.  You can also “like” us on Facebook.