Share your diabetes prevention journey
Disease is preventable by adopting healthy lifestyle choices
By Heather Drago, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System
May 15, 2019 – If you are an OPERS Medical Mutual plan participant, you may have heard from Medical Mutual and OPERS about lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes. If you haven’t already, take a moment to complete the American Diabetes Association’s Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test to find out if you’re at risk. Then, talk to your doctor about next steps.
Adopting healthy lifestyle choices such as managing weight, incorporating healthy eating habits and increasing physical activity may prevent type 2 diabetes from forming. Type 2 diabetes can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage and blindness. That sounds scary – but you can do something about it. You have the power to reduce your risk. Are you ready to get started?
The American Diabetes Association recommends getting at least 2.5 hours of moderate to intense activity such as brisk walking, swimming, cycling or running every week. Broken down, that’s 30 minutes a day, five days a week. If 30 minutes is too much to carve out of your day, try dividing it into two 15-minute sessions.
If you’ve begun your journey to reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, we invite you to share by adding your comment to this blog post. Please remember to omit personal information such as medication and physician details. We may share your story in future publications.
- How has incorporating healthy lifestyle changes positively impacted your life?
- Do you have more energy, have you become more social, found a new passion, discovered new foods or experienced weight loss?
- How did conversations with your doctor jumpstart your journey?
Forty percent of OPERS Medical Mutual pre-Medicare plan participants are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Are you part of the statistic?
Take control. Managing your health now may reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes in the future.
