Free Blood Sugar Screenings and Diabetes Prevention Program offered in honor of Diabetes Awareness Month

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month.  In honor of this, Veterans Memorial Hospital Diabetes Educator, Teresa Myers, RN, CDE, will be visiting the Waukon Wellness Center to offer free diabetes, or blood sugar screenings. These free blood sugar screenings will be available at the Waukon Wellness Center from 6 to 9 a.m. Tuesday, November 17.
Myers will also be offering a special Pre-Diabetes Prevention Program at the Waukon Senior Center located in the Waukon Wellness Center, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 19.
Pre-Diabetes is a condition that comes before Type 2 diabetes when the blood glucose (sugar) levels are higher than normal, but aren’t high enough to be called diabetes.  It is a silent disease, meaning someone can have it without even knowing it. Cutting back on calories and fat, being physically active and losing weight can reverse pre-diabetes and therefore delay or prevent Type 2 diabetes.
As a person gets older, especially if they are overweight, their chances of having pre-diabetes increases.  Risk factors for diabetes include being overweight, being physically inactive, having a parent, brother or sister with diabetes, are African American, Native American, Asian American, Pacific Islander or Hispanic American, have had a baby weighing more than 9 pounds or have had gestational diabetes, have high blood pressure (over 140/90) or have low HDL cholesterol (35 mg/dl or lower) or high triglycerides (250 mg/dl or higher.)  Physicians should check blood glucose levels if their patient is 45 or older and overweight, or under age 45 and overweight and have other risk factors for diabetes.
For more information on either of these programs, contact Teresa Myers, RN, CDE, at Veterans Memorial Hospital at (563) 568-3411.