It requires daily checking and monitoring of blood sugar levels to prevent long-term health complications. But some of them don't even know they're living with the disease.

Diabetic Educator Donna Riley says, "Approximately 8 percent of the US population has diabetes and of those, 79 million don't know it. So in fact many people don't even have symptoms. If you do have symptoms they would be excessive thirst, excessive urination, perhaps blurred vision, excessive hunger even though you're eating and those are pretty dramatic symptoms of a high blood sugar."

But Diabetic Educator Donna Riley says there are two simple things that you can adjust in your everyday life to combat signs of diabetes.

Riley says, "The foundation to any treatment plan for diabetes is always diet and exercise, but medications may be needed as well."

Regional Medical Clinic provides diabetes education and prevention classes. But soon they won't be the only ones in town doing so. This empty classroom at the Rapid City YMCA will become the site of a pre-diabetes class beginning in January.

Roger Gallimore with the Y says, "What it does is it provides an opportunity to make changes in lifestyle through nutritional awareness, through exercise. And the target is to reduce body weight by 5-7 percent and to implement 150 minutes a week of exercise."

Gallimore says that if diet change and exercise can be worked into our everyday lives, then we can make big strides in the fight against diabetes.

Gallimore says "If we can accomplish those things it's been proven that 58 percent of people who accomplish those things will never experience the onset of Type 2 diabetes, and that's what this class aims to do."

So if you are one of the millions of people who have diabetes, or are at risk of developing it, know that there are classes and treatment programs available to help you.

Darren Leeds