Campaign Offers Easy Steps to Cutting Diabetes Risk

SUNDAY, April 22 (HealthDay News) -- Experts at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) are launching a new national prevention program to help people lower their risk for obesity-linked type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

CheckUp America will educate Americans on curbing risk factors such as overweight/obesity, high blood glucose, high LDL ("bad") cholesterol, high triglycerides, low HDL ("good") cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking and physical inactivity.

The more of these risk factors a person has, the greater their risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

A recent ADA survey found that one in five Americans age 40 and older consider important health-related lifestyle changes "too hard," which suggests that many don't realize that relatively easy changes can help reduce their risk for diabetes and heart disease.

"The alarming rise in conditions like obesity, high blood glucose, and high blood pressure in America demands greater efforts to educate both people and physicians about the risk factors for type 2 diabetes and heart disease," Dr. John Buse, president-elect, medicine and science, ADA, said in a prepared statement.

"Through CheckUp America, the ADA will provide information and tools to help people at risk take necessary and modest steps to reduce disease risk and live a healthier life," Buse said.

The program will include an online risk assessment tool called My Health Advisor, available later this year, that will calculate a person's risk for type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke and death. Based on that individualized assessment, the tool will offer simple steps a person can take to reduce their risk.

CheckUp America will also include print, TV and radio public service ads.

More information

Here's where you can find out more about CheckUp America.

SOURCE: American Diabetes Association, news release, April 18, 2007