HIGH POINT – For newly diagnosed diabetics, there’s so much to learn about their disease that there ought to be a school.

Actually, there is. It’s called Cornerstone Diabetes University, and it offers an education that can make a huge difference in the students’ quality of life.

“A lot of times when patients get the diagnosis, they’re told not to eat sugar and to get more exercise, and that’s it,” says Amy Brian, program coordinator for the university and a doctor of pharmacy at Cornerstone Clinical Pharmacy Services, which sponsors the university.

“They’re overwhelmed and have no idea how to manage the disease. In the physician’s office, there’s just not enough time to deal with it. But we’re board-certified diabetes specialists, and we cover everything from A to Z – every topic in dealing with and managing their diabetes.”

Cornerstone Diabetes University is a four-week course for Type 2 diabetics designed to help them lead a healthier lifestyle and make better decisions to lower their risk of complications from diabetes. The classes are taught by doctors of pharmacy and by a licensed dietitian.

The program has been accredited by the American Diabetes Association, and classes cover such topics as how diabetes affects your body, how to prevent damage to your body from diabetes, how your medications work, healthy meal planning and exercise recommendations, how to monitor and interpret your blood sugar, ways to manage stress so it won’t affect your blood sugar, how to take care of yourself and your blood sugar when you’re sick, and how to eat out and still make healthy choices.

“Behavioral goal-setting is a critical part of the program,” Brian says. “As we talk about patients making lifestyle changes, we have them set behavioral goals for better managing their diabetes, and then we go through how they’re going to reach those goals. So we make them set that goal and hold them to it. They follow up with us after they complete the university.”

The classes also feel somewhat like a support group, though they’re not designed that way. Students share their experiences with one another, and that becomes another learning tool, Brian says.

Brian points out that while the classes are ideal for newly diagnosed diabetics, they’re open to anyone with Type 2 diabetes – and spouses are welcome, too.

“There’s a lot of new information we learn every day about diabetes and the care involved,” she says. “We find that patients who were diagnosed 20 years ago come because they get current information.”

George Ragan was diagnosed with diabetes at least a decade ago, but he has attended the university several times because he says managing the disease is a lifelong process.

“It’s not like they can just give you a couple of pills and it goes away,” says Ragan, of High Point. “This is with you for life, and I’m just trying to be proactive.”

Treva Pike, of Jamestown, says the classes have helped change her attitude about managing her diabetes.

“The hard part is changing your mind from ‘I’m gonna eat as I please’ to ‘I’m gonna eat to live and not live to eat,’” Pike says. “I’m 60 years old, and I’d like to live another 25 or 30 years, the good Lord willing, but I’ve got to do my part, and this class is helping me do that.”

jtomlin@hpe.com | 888-3579