Sweet Success Greenville Health System is helping people effectively manage diabetes—and helping others from developing the serious disorder. By Anne Smith
Johnny Payne, a participant in GHS’ Diabetes Prevention Program, has adopted a healthy lifestyle—and lost 50 pounds.
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he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that over 12 percent of adults in the U.S. have diabetes, which causes blood sugar levels to rise abnormally, potentially leading to heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputations. Prediabetes (when blood sugar levels are elevated but not enough for a diabetes diagnosis) is critical to understand, according to Michelle Stancil, manager of Diabetes Management for Greenville Health System (GHS). More than one in three adults have prediabetes, but only 10 percent know it. That knowledge gap is devastating, as “prediabetes increases your risk of heart disease, stroke and developing diabetes,” Stancil explained. This progression can cause an array of complications—even death. 13 Inside Health
Some prediabetes risk factors—such as race, age, sex and family history—can’t be changed. Others, like weight, nutrition choices and physical activity levels, “can be improved with education, effort and support,” observed Celia Witt Beauchamp, a GHS registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator. “That’s where we can sidestep diabetes and all that comes along with it. That’s how we win this battle: prevention.”
Diabetes Prevention Program: Starting from Within GHS began a CDC-recognized Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) last year to combat diabetes “early on, and from the inside out,” said Peter Tilkemeier, MD, chairman of GHS’ Department of Internal Medicine. The lifestyle-change
