A new pilot programme to help prevent diabetes is being launched today (April 7). The preventing diabetes programme has been developed with Cornwall Council’s Public Health Team, Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group, Diabetes UK and St. Austell Healthcare.

Thursday, April 7 is also World Health Day, which is focusing on preventing diabetes. The course will be a mixture of help and advice on diet as well as physical activity. In Cornwall just over 25,585 (5.6%)* people have diabetes, which increases the likelihood of having a stroke and heart disease.

Being inactive and overweight also greatly increases your chances of a number of other preventable diseases including heart disease, cancer, dementia as well as diabetes.

People who are at risk of developing diabetes have been invited to attend the eight week programme. The group will meet weekly and will look at lifestyle choices and be offered tailored advice to support them to identify the changes they can make in their own lives to help reduce the risk of developing this disease.

The Public Health One You campaign, recently launched in Cornwall, encourages adults to get healthier.  Modern day life makes it harder to be healthy, but living healthily in mid-life doubles the chances of being healthy at 70 and beyond. We’re encouraging adults to eat well, drink less, be smoke free, move more and stress less. These are all behaviours that can cause preventable diseases.

If people haven’t been invited to take part in the pilot, but are concerned about their health, there are a number of options available. They can get a free blood pressure check at branches of ASDA with a pharmacy as part of the Public Health England One You campaign. They can contact the PHIL service on 01209 313419 or visit  https://www.healthpromcornwall.org/ask-phil/ . They should speak to a GP if they are concerned about any symptoms.

There are a number of online health tests including the “How Are You?” quiz www.oneyoucios.co.uk  or the Diabetes UK risk toolhttps://riskscore.diabetes.org.uk/start?gclid=CMSvpcSS1MsCFQuNGwodezQFVw   and the Heart Age tool https://www.nhs.uk/tools/pages/heartage.aspx