Free Diabetes Management Classes Being Offered

There is an epidemic sweeping the United States and it has nothing to do with a virus from the west coast of Africa.

While there was such hoopla over the handful of Ebola cases that have touched the United States in recent weeks, there was no such uproar over the ever-increasing number of persons in the U.S. contracting and dying from diabetes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 29 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, up an eye-catching three million people from just four years earlier.

What is just as astonishing is that another 86 million adults, more than one in three U.S. adults, have pre-diabetes, where their blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes. Without weight loss and moderate physical activity, 15 to 30 percent of these people will develop type 2 diabetes within five years.

In an effort to help combat this epidemic, Diane Rowe, a nurse practitioner with Elk River Health Services, is offering free diabetes management classes once a month at the Pineville Community Center. Rowe said if there is interest, she would like to expand to include a class in Noel once a month also.

The next class will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at the Pineville Community Center.

"It is a rapidly growing epidemic," Rowe said. "The thing about diabetes is generally you have it for 10 years before you show the symptoms. The whole thing about doing this for me is that my mother had diabetes. She ended up legally blind. She lost the feeling in her feet. She had heart damage and had to have bypass surgery. She stepped on a needle and it caused an infection and that's ultimately what killed her."

Rowe said she uses a program from the American Diabetes Association called Conservation Map Tools to teach her class.

"It's kind of like a board game," Rowe said. "I want to get everybody involved and I act as a facilitator."

She said the biggest question she gets is people want to know what they can eat.

"I try to teach them what they can eat and teach them what their numbers mean," Rowe said. "What's your blood sugar? What's your A1c? What is normal for you is not for everyone because we are all not the same. Also, the more health problems you have, it is a little more tricky to manage it. You really spend a limited amount of time with your health care provider. You are really the one in charge of it."

Rowe said she teaches people how to recognize high blood sugar and low blood sugar by how they feel.

"I tell them to wright it down and put it on the refrigerator," Rowe said. "You're there enough it will get drilled into your head. You will know what is going on when you feel shaky or your vision is blurred."

She said even not being able to sleep at night can be attributed to diabetes.

"A lot of time people will wake up in the middle of the night because they are hot and they don't know it's due to low blood sugar," Rowe said. "They just know they are having trouble sleeping. I tell them to go check their blood sugar. It's really crazy what diabetes can do to you."

Anyone wanting more information on the free classes can contact Rowe by calling any of the clinics of Elk River Health Services. Clinics are located in Anderson, Pineville, Southwest City and Goodman.

Rowe invites everyone to the next class which is set from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at the Pineville Community Center.