Free Classes to Manage Your Diabetes

For Immediate Release

01/20/2009




Nearly 21 million Americans have diabetes.  Lamoille County has the second highest rate of diabetes in Vermont.  “Diabetes is a serious chronic disease, but it doesn’t prevent you from living a healthy, active life,” states Loretta Schneider, RN and one of Copley’s Certified Diabetes Educators.   How you manage your disease now affects your quality of life later. Schneider, and Registered Dietitian Nancy Wagner are pleased to offer a series of monthly classes that will address the different types of diabetes, healthy eating to better control your diabetes, monitoring blood sugars and interpreting your readings, goal setting, exercise and complications.  
 
What is Diabetes?  Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal. People with diabetes have problems converting food to energy. After a meal, food is broken down into a sugar called glucose, which is carried by the blood to cells throughout the body. Cells use insulin, a hormone made in the pancreas, to help them convert blood glucose into energy.

People develop diabetes because the pancreas does not make enough insulin or because the cells in the muscles, liver, and fat do not use insulin properly, or both. As a result, the amount of glucose in the blood increases while the cells are starved of energy. If not controlled, diabetes can lead to serious complications such as heart disease, stroke, nerve damage, kidney failure and blindness.   “The longer diabetes goes on without treatment, the greater its potential for harm,” continued Wagner.

 
Though early diabetes may have no apparent symptoms, possible warning signs include excessive thirst and urination, daytime fatigue and blurred vision. 

 
Wagner explains that the goal of these classes is to provide participants with the tools and resources in order to live a healthy lifestyle and feel better.  “It is also an opportunity to provide insight into what happens to the body when you have diabetes,” says Wagner. 

           

The classes are free and scheduled once per month for four months.  The new session will be held on Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Copley Terrace in Morrisville, beginning January 29. Subsequent classes will be held on  February 26, March 26 and April 23, 2009.

 
Copley’s Diabetes Education team works in coordination with your physician to help you better manage your diabetes.  If you are interested in registering for this free series, or learning more about diabetes please contact Copley’s Diabetes Education Department at 888-8226. 


Contact Information
Leah Hollenberger
Senior Director Development, Marketing & Public Relations
Copley Hospital
802-888-8301
lhollenberger@chsi.com