 What makes for excellence in hard care? It starts with one of the most amazing teams of heart surgeons and cardiologists that I've seen assembled under one roof and the region's leading technology in a new $40 million facility. This is the nationally recognized Heart and Vascular Institute of Eastern Kentucky at Pikeville Medical Center. Today, March 28th is a one-day wake-up call that focuses on the seriousness of diabetes and the importance of understanding your risk. Today, March 28th is Diabetes Alert Day and we're trying to spread the word and educate the public about diabetes. Currently, 13 percent of Pike County residents are living with diabetes but the bigger story is that even more are pre-diabetic and do not know. The fourth Tuesday of March is observed as Diabetes Alert Day and according to the American Diabetes Association, 37 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, with 97 million having pre-diabetes. Diabetes is diagnosed through a couple of tests either through a full blood lab draw or a finger stick, a simple finger stick and if it's a fasting glucose level that you're looking at anywhere between 100 and 125 would mean a pre-diabetes diagnosis. Anything over 125 would be a diabetes or diabetic diagnosis. So what we want to educate individuals about is to get a test and some people are more at risk than others. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in our country and it is also a global epidemic. The Pike County Health Department has wonderful resources to educate and prevent diabetes. We have a CDC approved program called the DPP Program Diabetes Prevention Program. It's free to Pike County residents and we actually have on staff a nurse who is a diabetes educator. Her name is Jessica Anderson. She's very knowledgeable about prevention and treatment. So if you already have that diabetes diagnosis, at that point really your best option is to manage your diabetes. She would refer you to a DSMES class but if you're pre-diabetic here's the big news and really the biggest point of the story today is that if you're pre-diabetic your diagnosis is preventable but it's also reversible. So I would like to implore the public to call Jessica Anderson. It's a free resource. She can refer you to other resources if you already have a diabetes diagnosis but if you're pre-diabetic or you're just at high risk she has a free program that will help you either reverse or prevent diabetes. For more information call 606-509-5500 and ask for Jessica Anderson. Reporting from Mountain Top News, I'm Ethan Miller.