Prediabetic? School Is in Session
A few years ago, a young woman looking through family event photos saw someone she didn’t recognize. She was shocked to realize that the stranger was herself. Not yet thirty years old, this mother of a special-needs child had few resources left for self-care. She was overweight and prediabetic, and an excellent candidate for SFCHC’s Diabetes Prevention Classes.
Teaching Saves the Day – Again
Today, more than 30% of American adults are prediabetic, and more than 80% of them don’t even know it. Between 15% and 20% of these Americans will develop type 2 diabetes, which can lead to a number of serious conditions:
heart disease
stroke
kidney disease
vision problems
foot problems
nerve damage
Diabetic conditions are diagnosed from a person’s A1C, which is their average level of blood sugar or glucose over two to three months.
In 2010, the Center for Disease Control addressed the issue by creating the National Diabetes Prevention Program. It includes PreventT2, a course that teaches people how to change their lifestyle for the healthier. It’s designed for patients over 18 who have any of the following:
an A1C between 5.7% and 6.4%
gestational diabetes
a body mass index (BMI) over 25%
SFCHC adopted the curriculum in 2018, starting with a class of fifteen students. The first instructor was Rita Jauregui, the clinic’s health education manager.
Jauregui says that for class instructors, called lifestyle coaches, the curriculum is helpful, with the philosophy that it’s “better to prevent than cure.” As a result, the first cohort improved so much that she initially thought she’d recorded the data incorrectly. One participant lost 64 pounds over the yearlong course. The experience was “tremendous,” Jauregui says, “especially for me because I helped them reach their goal.”
What You’ll Learn
The class covers a different topic each week, 26 in all. Many of them are about overcoming common challenges to losing weight, including:
Eating healthy on a budget
Finding time to exercise
Coping with triggers
Eating well away from home
Weight loss that stalls
Staying active while away from home
Finding healthy food you enjoy
Getting enough sleep
At each class meeting, participants weigh themselves, measure their waists, and calculate their BMI. Everyone receives weekly logs to record how much they exercise and what they eat every day. Jauregui says the logs and easy-to-follow handouts help patients understand their choices. This in turn helps them create action plans to reach their goals.
The original class meeting time is still on Friday mornings. (A time slot chosen through a patient survey, part of SFCHC’s continuing mission of accessible healthcare.) A second session was later added on Saturdays, and both classes are in-person at the clinic. For one year, participants attend classes between an hour and 90 minutes long. They meet weekly for the first six months, every other week for the following three months, and monthly for the final three months. And through SFCHC, the entire course is completely free.
An Outstanding Report Card
To keep providing this powerful resource to the community, SFCHC reports course results to the CDC every year. The positive data helped SFCHC become an accredited provider of the course in 2018 and CDC-certified a year later. There’s usually a waitlist for the course, and this year’s cohort is ready to start in April – a month early.
The course, while successful, isn’t easy. The CDC recommends losing 4-6% of one’s body weight and increasing physical activity to 150 minutes per week. “The first six months are crucial,” Jauregui says, and requires “a commitment to be here every day.” Still, participants excel thanks to the personal attention and support SFCHC is known for. Lifestyle coaches help patients find individual solutions, like walking with coworkers at lunch for the person working at a desk. And the support doesn’t end with suggestions. Jauregui herself walked five miles every afternoon with her first cohort. “I need to help them, that’s why I was always working hard with them.”
But Jauregui refuses to take full credit for the participants’ success. “They change their life totally,” she insists. And that prediabetic woman who didn’t recognize herself? She’s still using the program. She’s lost nearly 40 pounds – 30 of them in her first six months – and reduced her A1C from 6% to 4.1%. “She’s doing great,” Jauregui says proudly.
