CDC Starts Program To Help Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

November is Diabetes Awareness Month, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is starting a new program that could prevent your chances of getting Type 2 Diabetes.

Beth Goetz with OU Health said educational and lifestyle programs have proven to change people’s health and lives.

For the general population, these programs are 58 percent effective in reducing, delaying or preventing Type 2 diabetes. For people over 60, there is a 71 percent effective rate for preventing diabetes.

Program participant Richard Abrahamson said he was pre-diabetic and on his way to full-blown Type 2 diabetes.

"When I started the program, I was right at 190-plus pounds and I knew weight loss was absolutely important,” Abrahamson said. “I weighed last week. I was 168.”

Abrahamson said he has a long line of diabetes in his family.

“My father was a diabetic and my sister was a Type 1 diabetic,” Abrahamson said.

Since getting involved in Prevent T2, Abrahamson said his perspective on eating has changed.

"I am one now that looks at labels when I go to the store now,” Abrahamson said.

According to Goetz, Prevent T2 is a year-long program and a rigorous one. The program can all be done online. 

"We are working with people to help them lose 5 to 7 percent of their body weight, to be active 150 minutes or more a week, Goetz said.

Goetz also said most people lose up to 15 pounds.

“Turning in your weight each week, turning in your activity minutes, and keeping a food log, it keeps you accountable,” Goetz said.

Abrahamson encourages people to take the program…."if you’re motivated, this is definitely going to help."

Prevent T2 has an online class that starts in January, but there are qualifiers bases on body mass index and A1C. If you are interested, you can contact Beth Goetz at (405) 421-2959.