More than a hundred leaders have just finished a two-day meeting in Minneapolis on expanding Minnesota’s diabetes prevention program. Gretchen Taylor with the state Health Department says, “One in every three adults in Minnesota, based on CDC estimates, have pre-diabetes — and that translates in our state into one-point-five million Minnesotans.” Taylor says they’re trying to increase awareness among physicians and the public at large, plus figure out ways to make diabetes prevention programs financially accessible to more Minnesotans — and make the programs available in more places.
Taylor notes a study found that people who lost five to seven percent of their body weight reduced their risk of Type 2 diabetes 58 percent over three years. “In people over 60, the program and the weight loss that it achieved reduced their risk by 70 percent,” she says.