Local YMCA helps people prevent type 2 diabetes

Diabetes Prevention Program is a year-long activity

LA CROSSE, WI (WKBT) — The La Crosse Area Family YMCA is helping people prevent type 2 diabetes. 

The Y’s Diabetes Prevention Program is a year-long activity that helps people set goals to help prevent the disease. 

First, they identify people who are at risk for type 2 diabetes. Then they encourage them to lose seven-percent of their weight and increase daily activity to 150 minutes a week. 

The group meets regularly to share ideas and help encourage each other. The program is based on a study that looked specifically at type 2 diabetes. 

“They found that those who are at risk, when they lost five to seven percent of their body weight, they reduced their chance of developing type-2 diabetes by 58%,” said Kirsten Schmidt, diabetes prevention coordinator at the La Crosse Family YMCA.

Since it started in La Crosse in 2011, 197 people have taken part in the Y’s program. For more information and to take the test to see if you are at risk, visit the Y’s Diabetes Prevention Program’s website.

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