POCATELLO — Diabetes is a rapidly increasing problem for the nation. Over the next five years, 88 million new cases of diabetes are predicted to emerge, damaging the health of diagnosed individuals and causing havoc on the American health care system.

Which is why pharmacist Debbie Marchetti of Snell’s Pharmacy Shop has been taking large steps to ensure that the community of Pocatello becomes aware of this issue and their risk of having prediabetes.

In August, Snell’s Pharmacy Shop became one of 30 in the nation and the second in Idaho to be selected to receive training from the Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists to become a provider for the National Diabetes Prevention program.

“If you look at that scenario of (88 million people) with prediabetes, and if we just ignore it or if we can’t at least get some chipped away at that population, it’s actually devastating where we’re going to go in general, and the American lifestyle feeds that path,” said Marchetti, who has been a clinical pharmacist for Snell’s Pharmacy Shop for two and a half years.

Marchetti applied for and secured the grant for the pharmacy from the National Community Pharmacists Association in August and explained that they have been receiving training and financial support to become providers. The grant gives them the opportunity to offer a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-approved lifestyle change program, which they will deliver through hour-long sessions each week for six months and then monthly sessions for the remainder of the year.

These classes are free to the public for the first full year and include a CDC-approved curriculum with coaching on how to improve food choices and increase daily exercise to help keep prediabetes — and thus diabetes — at bay.

Marchetti explained it is not a diet or workout class but a lifestyle change session and that she and pharmacy manager Cheyene Nickerson have received training and will be diabetes prevention coaches who help participants gain self-manage skills and knowledge regarding prediabetes on an individual one-on-one basis.

The first class begins Sept. 29 and will focus on what prediabetes is, how it affects an individual, and how to reverse the effects before that individual becomes diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

“If you don’t act or you don’t do something to make those people aware that they are prediabetic and if they don’t stop it at that stage, the damage is already done,” Marchetti said. “You can’t reverse diabetes.”

Marchetti explained that prediabetes is also a silent killer. One out of three adults have it, eight out of 10 people don’t know they have it, and it is associated with vision problems, hearing loss, heart disease, kidney disease and strokes.

“Our goal is to try to get that out there,” she said. “It’s hard because we all know what we need to do to take care of ourselves. And we all know what we need to do to stop that path. But when you have a condition that’s silent, it’s easy to ignore.”

In order to provide the space for the CDC-approved program sessions, Snell’s Pharmacy Shop will be expanding its office into the left side of its building to give proper attention to the urgent issue of prediabetes.

“That’s the whole goal in all of this,” said Marchetti. “I want to stop — and everyone involved in this program wants to stop — the diabetes tsunami.”

Prediabetes and diabetes don’t just damage an individual’s health, however. Marchetti explained it also damages the health care system of the United States, and if the diabetes pandemic isn’t tamed, it could do irreversible damage to the medical system.

“There’s 88 million people … with prediabetes, and if they all go above, if they all get diabetes, we will break our medical system,” she said. “There is not a single insurance entity that can handle that.”

Thanks to the grant that the NCPA, ADCES and OmniSYS have provided to Snell’s Pharmacy Shop, the cost of these sessions will remain free for the first year. Marchetti also explained there’s no cap on participants, and while they will be limiting class sizes to ensure they have one-on-one interaction with participants, whether they have to do one class or 20 classes is something they are ready to tackle.

A Spanish-speaking class will be offered as well. The only stipulation they have, however, is that participants must begin the classes now and attend the majority of the following classes for the duration of one year.

“This class has been proven over and over and over again to be very successful and so the key is just to bring it into our community,” she said. “It’s not a question of whether it will be successful. The question is whether we have enough people we get signed up that finish the course … so that we’ll be able to offer this long term. So that’s our end goal.”

While much of the attention will be on preventing diabetes, Marchetti said she’s aware that there are individuals who’ve been diagnosed with type 2 already, and that the pharmacy will be holding classes in the next few weeks for these individuals about how to manage their lifestyles, medications, and more.

Marchetti stressed the importance of not putting your health off and saying you’ll do it next week or next year, and that this grant they’ve been provided is a great opportunity to help people get on track to prevent being diagnosed with diabetes.

“How often do we have something that would normally cost people hundreds of dollars, and their insurance companies hundreds of dollars, that is free?” she said. “So let’s just do it. I’ve got the chisel, I’m ready for this.”

For those interested in attending the prediabetes coaching sessions, the first class is at the Mountain View Event Center on Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. for English speakers and 7 p.m. for Spanish speakers. For anyone concerned about whether or not they have prediabetes, they can take the risk test at www.cdc.gov/prediabetes/takethetest. For more information on what Snell’s Pharmacy Shop offers, call 208-232-0049.