Mon Health Medical Center offering free diabetes prevention classes

Mon Health Medical Center's Diabetes Learning Center is offering a free series of National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) classes beginning in September.

The program provides education and support to individuals who are high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Participants will learn how to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles by eating right, increasing physical activity and losing a modest amount of weight. Research shows that modest lifestyle changes can lead to a 5-7% weight loss and maintaining the loss has been shown to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58%.

"This program provides the education people need to prevent diabetes," said Andrea 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 classes begin on Sept. 12 and pre-registration is required by call 304-598-1805.

To qualify for the program, a person must be at high risk for developing diabetes or have been diagnosed by a physician as someone with pre-diabetes. A combination of risk factors such as being 65 years old or older, 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.