Lou Brock, Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer who played 17 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, will be a guest at a special diabetes awareness program at the St. Bernards Health & Wellness Institute on Thursday, March 29.
Brock’s Jonesboro visit and a special diabetes presentation is sponsored by Novo Nordisk. The former Cardinal, who has been ranked among the top 100 greatest baseball players of all time, will talk with the interested public from 4:30 to 5:15 Thursday afternoon.
Residents 18 and older who are interested in talking with Brock and getting autographs also can take advantage of having their A1C checked free of charge. The A1C is an average of blood sugar levels over the last three months.
The program, dubbed “Diabetes Double-Play,” will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the Health & Wellness Institute. Brock will have one-on-one time with the public through 5:15 p.m. From 5:15 to 6:30 p.m., blood will be drawn in the St. Bernards Diabetes Management Center labs at the Health & Wellness Institute to check A1C levels. A special dinner – which already is completely booked – will be held at 6 p.m. and will include a special presentation by Trish Thielemier, a registered and licensed dietitian and certified diabetes educator.
Brock was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 and has a statue mounted at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. He is the only player to have an award named in his honor while he still was a Major League baseball player.
He was diagnosed the Type 2 Diabetes shortly after his 60th birthday and has learned to manage the disease and has prospered as a businessman since his retirement from baseball. He now has partnered with Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company dedicated to diabetes care, to raise awareness of properly managing blood glucose levels and to demonstrate that diabetes can be successfully integrated into your life.
Following his prestigious baseball career, Brock has been a most successful businessman. He has owned and operated airport retail concessions at Chicago O’Hare and St. Louis International Airports, has served as a broadcast analyst and spokesman for many national organizations – including Major League Baseball – and has been a successful inventor, holding two U.S. patents.
He also is a spring instructor for the St. Louis Cardinals, a position he has held for more than 10 years.
He and his wife, Jacqueline, both are ordained ministers and live in the St. Louis area.
National Diabetes Alert Day is March 27. The Thursday program at St. Bernards is one of the ways St. Bernards gives back to the community by offering free A1C testing.
Funding for the program is provided by Novo Nordisk.
The St. Bernards Diabetes Management Center is located at the St. Bernards Health & Wellness Institute. It offers a comprehensive program recognized by the American Diabetes Association to meet stringent quality standards and is staffed by a multidisciplinary team including an advanced practice nurse, a registered nurse educator and a registered dietitian who is a certified diabetic educator.
The St. Bernards team works with children and adults who have Type 1, Type 2 and Gestational Diabetes, helping them manage and control their disease. They teach diabetics about the importance of meal planning, exercise, medications, glucose self-monitoring, psychosocial issues, prevention of complications, sick day management, management during pregnancy, insulin pump therapy and more.