By Paul M. Dake, M.D.
Q: I was informed by my doctor that I have prediabetes; after reading your article last week, I am interested in avoiding becoming diabetic; how can I find a Diabetes Prevention Program near my home that can help and guide me in this effort?
A: There are a total of 59 such programs across the State of Michigan, 30 of which have achieved full recognition/certification by the CDC and 16 of which have achieved preliminary recognition/certification by the CDC; the rest are actively working on the certification process.
The easiest way to find the program nearest you is to visit the CDC’s website here: bit.ly/MIDiabetes (case sensitive). This takes you to a page entitled National Diabetes Prevention Program and, specifically, to the Registry of All Recognized Organizations. About halfway down the screen, you will see Michigan in a text box, and to the right of it, another box that says “Show All Cities”. Scroll up a bit to come to a wide medium blue box labeled “Recognized Programs – Michigan”; just below these words will be a text box labeled “Results per page”; click on the tiny down-arrow in this box and, from the drop-down list, click on “ALL”; this will cause the list of programs below to change from that for Alabama to the list for Michigan.
It will probably be easier to find the program best for you by clicking on the dark blue word “City” in the next line, which will arrange all of the programs in alphabetical order by City name.
By accessing such a program and successfully making the needed lifestyle changes mentioned in last week’s article (losing 7% of your current body weight and engaging in moderate activity [usually brisk walking] for 30 minutes a day 5 days a week), you will cut your risk of developing full-fledged diabetes by nearly half.
Another major added benefit of these changes is that you will also cut your risk of stroke, getting diabetic eye care, and heart attack by more than half. Good luck!!
To learn more about this and many other health topics, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians’ website familydoctor.org, where you can click on the Search box in the upper right corner of the website, and enter your topic of interest.
I want to thank Charlotte D. for suggesting this topic; if you have any particular topic you would like to hear more about, please message me at paulmdake@gmail.com.
