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Are you ready to start walking?
Do you need motivation to help you stay active?
Walk With Ease may be the program for you! Walk With Ease is a self-directed, FREE program to help you get and stay active. The program can be tailored to fit your individual needs and will also provide you with health information, stretching and strengthening exercises, and ways to help you stay motivated.
To learn more about Walk With Ease, contact the Graves County Health Department at 270-247-3553. We look forward to helping you reach your health and wellness goals!
Diabetes is a silent disease. You can have it for years and not know it. During this time, harm can come to your eyes, nerves, and kidneys without you even knowing it.
Your risk for Diabetes goes up with getting older, gaining too much weight, or if you do not stay active. Diabetes is more common in African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders.
Risk factors for diabetes include:
- Having high blood pressure (at or above 130/80).
- Having a family history of Diabetes.
- Having diabetes during pregnancy or having a baby weighing more than nine pounds at birth.
Most people with diabetes do not notice any symptoms. If you have any of these symptoms, contact your health care provider right away:
- Being very thirsty
- Urinating often
- Losing weight without trying
You can prevent Type 2 diabetes with our Lifestyle Change Program!
The Lifestyle Change Program Reduces Your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
If you have prediabetes or other risk factors for type 2 diabetes, now is the time to take charge of your health and make a change. The Graves County Health Department can help!
Life Style Change Program is part of the National Diabetes Prevention Program led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It features an approach that is proven to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes and includes:
By improving food choices and increasing physical activity, you can lose 5 to 7 percent of your body weight — that is 10 to 14 pounds for a person weighing 200 pounds. If you have prediabetes, these lifestyle changes can cut your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by more than half.
One out of three American adults has pre-diabetes, and most of them do not know it. Having prediabetes means your blood glucose (sugar) level is higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. This raises your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
Without weight loss and moderate physical activity, many people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within 3 years. Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition that can lead to health issues such as heart attack; stroke; blindness; kidney failure; or loss of toes, feet, or legs.
The lifestyle changes you make in the Lifestyle Change Program will help you prevent or delay type 2 diabetes.
You may have prediabetes and be at risk for Type 2 diabetes if you:
As part of a group, you will work with a trained lifestyle coach and other participants to learn the skills you need to make lasting lifestyle changes. You will learn to eat healthy, add physical activity to your life, manage stress, stay motivated, and solve problems that can get in the way of healthy changes.
Lifestyle Change Program groups meet once a week for 16 weeks, then once a month for 6 months to help you maintain your healthy lifestyle changes. By meeting with others who have prediabetes you can celebrate each other’s successes and work together to overcome obstacles.
Program Fees
Some insurance plans will cover the cost for the Lifestyle Change Program. Check with your insurance provider to see if it is covered. If it is not, that’s okay! You’re still welcome to participate.
The Purchase Area Diabetes Connection is a coalition of members – lay and professional persons – who direct their efforts to providing education to western Kentucky. Any interested people may become members. Meetings are held ten times a year at various sites. Two events that the PADC sponsors each year are the Diabetes EXPO held on the third Saturday of September and a Spring Prevention event in the Spring.
For more information about PADC, please call DeAnna Leonard 270-444-9625, ext. 107.
ADA-American Diabetes Association
CDC Diabetes Info
JDRF-Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
NDEP-National Diabetes Education Program
Diabetes Awareness: Assess Risk & Save Lives
World Health Organization
A Tip from a Former Smoker: Smoking makes diabetes much worse
- Pap test and pelvic examination
- Clinical breast exam and instruction for performing self breast exams
- Mammography screening, for women 40-64 years of age
- General cancer information
- Other lab tests and immunizations as needed
Get more information about the HPV Vaccine.
Women who have been screened by a local health department and found to need treatment for breast or cervical cancer may receive treatment through Kentucky Medicaid Services.
Find free and low-cost breast and cervical cancer screenings in your area here.
Get more information about the Komen Foundation and Celebrating Life!
Breastfeeding is encouraged as the preferred feeding for all infants, including premature newborns. Breast milk has many benefits for both mother and baby. Breastfed infants have decreased risk of diabetes, asthma, allergies, and ear infections.
Our health department supports breastfeeding in a variety of ways. We have a designated breastfeeding promotion coordinator who collaborates with local health
care providers and businesses to provide information and support for all demographics of mothers and families. Some examples of information that we provide to the community are attendance at local health fairs, media campaigns, and providing up to date resources for local health care providers.
WIC promotes, supports and encourages mothers to breastfeed their babies as it has been shown to provide many health, nutrition, and emotional benefits to both mothers and babies. Currently, more than half of the nation’s infants are on WIC.
The WIC program provides pregnant and postpartum women with breastfeeding support and information to make the best informed decisions for their health as well as their new babies.
The American Lung Association's Freedom From Smoking® (FFS) program is for adults who are ready to quit smoking. Because most people know that smoking is dangerous to their health, the program focuses almost exclusively on how to quit, not why to quit.
The Freedom From Smoking® group clinic consists of eight sessions. It is delivered by a Lung Association-trained facilitator in a small-group setting (usually eight to 10 people), so participants receive personalized attention. At the same time, individuals benefit from the support of their peers, who are going through the same stages at the same time. The curriculum includes the latest research about nicotine replacement therapy (gum, inhalers, patches, lozenges and nasal spray) and other smoking cessation medications such as Zyban® and Chantix®.
Each clinic session uses techniques based on pharmacological and psychological principles and methods designed to help smokers gain control over their behavior. Because no single cessation technique is effective for all smokers, the program includes a comprehensive variety of evidence-based cessation techniques.
Tobacco prevention and education classes are taught in grades K-12th. Information is presented to students on the health risks of using tobacco and other tobacco related products. E-cigarette/vaping is also discussed with students and health effects associated with it.
1-800-QUIT NOW is a statewide telephone service that will provide brief intervention and support for people who want to stop smoking or using other tobacco products. Callers, both smokers and nonsmokers, can receive information about tobacco dependence and treatment options. Tobacco cessation counselors staff phone lines Monday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. through the Kentucky Department for Public Health's Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program.
All Kentucky employees enrolled in the Kentucky Employees Health Plan are eligible to receive NRT to assist with quitting tobacco. They will pay a $5.00 co-pay for each 2 week supply for NRT. To qualify for this benefit the tobacco user must enroll either with Quit Now Kentucky at 1-800-Quit Now or with a Cooper-Clayton Class in their community. For questions please call 1-888-581-8834 or 1-502-564-6534.
The Graves County Agency for Substance Abuse Policy board will help our community be free of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD) by helping change the culture that approves of and supports ATOD. This will be accomplished by working with concerned community partners to educate, treat, and prevent ATOD use.
A STD (sexually transmitted disease) is an infection that is passed during sex.
Not having sex is the best way to protect yourself from STD. Having sex with only one uninfected partner who only has sex with you is also safe.
Talk with your partner about how you'll protect yourselves from STD.
Many people have a STD with no symptoms. If you have symptoms, you may notice any of these things.
If you have any symptoms, stop having sex. Go to a doctor or STD clinic. Get checked now! Don't put it off.