Stopping diabetes at the YMCA

Getting diabetes prevention programs out to the people who need them—such as the millions of Canadians per year at risk of developing type 2 diabetes—is the reason that professor and researcher Dr. Mary Jung is currently spending as much time at the YMCA as she is in the lab.

It’s a smart approach to a chronic issue—six million Canadians are living with diagnosed and undiagnosed type 2 diabetes, and that number keeps growing. But many cases of type 2 diabetes can be prevented, if the right diet and exercise choices are made during the prediabetes stage, which is when the blood has higher than normal sugar levels but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Jung’s diabetes prevention program, called Small Steps for Big Changes, was created to offer personalized diet and exercise counselling to people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. She has partnered with the YMCA, with funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Public Health Agency of Canada, because of their ability to get programs into the community.

“The YMCA is not-for-profit and part of their mission is to offer care or support no matter what income, even people who have no income at all,” says Dr. Jung of the reason for the partnership. “That jives with the goal of making sure our diabetes prevention program is really accessible.”

The ambitious expansion project will take the program from 8 existing YMCA locations to 52 in eight provinces, plus locations in Australia and Portugal. The expansion will see almost 10,000 people go through the program, according to Dr. Jung, and early results are looking good.

“People who go through our program not only make major changes to their diet and exercise routines, they stick to their new behaviours for at least a year after finishing the program,” says Dr. Jung, when asked about what makes Small Steps for Big Changes so successful at reducing weight and blood glucose levels.