EPIDEMIC RISE OF TYPE 2 DIABETES IN KIDS



EPIDEMIC RISE OF TYPE 2 DIABETES IN KIDS

by Tawny McCray

Type 2 Diabetes used to be considered an adults-only disease, occurring in men and women over age 50. Now it is appearing in children and teenagers in record proportions, leading experts to label it an emerging epidemic.

Why are we seeing this epidemic rise of Type 2 Diabetes in kids?

“Because we’re seeing an epidemic rise in obesity in kids,” says Beth McFeely, RNCDE (registered nurse and certified diabetes educator) at Children’s Hospital.

Approximately 13 percent of children, ages 6 to 17, in the United States are either overweight or obese.

According to a January article in Diabetes eMagazine, Type 2 Diabetes is closely linked to being overweight and an estimated 300,000 teenagers in this country now have this type of diabetes.

McFeely says these outrageous statistics result from a combination of a lot of things.

“Kids are more sedentary now,” she says, “they play a lot of video games and have working parents who often times don’t want them to go out so they’re indoors and get less activity.”

And, she adds, “everything is super-sized nowadays and kids drink too much soda.”

In a September article published by the American Diabetes Association, it states kids eat too much saturated fat (found in French Fries, hamburgers and other red meats), simple sugars or carbohydrates (found in candy, cakes, donuts and regular sodas), and high calorie, low-nutrient foods like potato and corn chips.

They eat all this, the article states, yet don’t use up all the extra calories by being physically active.

McFeely also feels that food changes at school could help the situation.

“[Schools] need to get rid of soda machines and candy machines and offer healthier selections of food,” she says.

She says schools need to do this because children spend a lot of time in school.

“We have a lot of kids who get free lunch at school and breakfast as well,” McFeely says, “and it’s cheaper to serve some of this high fat stuff. “

There needs to be more Physical Education in the schools also, she notes.

The causes of diabetes, McFeely says, are obesity, having a genetic predisposition and insulin-resistance.

One sign of insulin resistance is a darkening around the skin “that you see at the neck or other places where the skin folds,” she says. “Every now and then we have a mom come in and she says, ‘I’m scrubbing and scrubbing and I can’t get it off.’”

Other risk factors, according to the ADA article, include going through puberty, being in a particular ethnic group (African American, Latino, Native American and Asian/South Pacific Islander), being born small (below five pounds) or large (above nine pounds) and girls who have a condition referred to as polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Symptoms of the disease, according to the same article, include weight loss, thirst and excessive urination, fatigue, blurry vision, infections (including vaginal infections in girls) and sores that do not heal.

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is the leading cause of diabetes-related deaths and is the most serious complication of Type 2 Diabetes. At least 65 percent of people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke.

The ADA article urges people not to wait for Type 2 Diabetes to develop, but to prevent it before it begins.

Parents can reduce the risk of their child developing the disease, according to the ADA, by encouraging them to include at least 30 minutes of activity in their day, include more fruit and vegetables, whole grain bread, cereals, and low-fat foods in their diet and eat smaller portions at meals and snack time.

Getting a hold on obesity is the key step, however, in the prevention of Type 2 Diabetes. McFeely says obesity is the number one health care crisis in the country right now.

She says they have kids who come into the clinic who are so obese they’re already having a lot of knee problems. Their problems, she says, are going to be worse and happen earlier at such young ages.

One positive aspect she sees is the development of programs such as the Weight and Wellness Program, a series of classes they’ve started at Children’s Hospital.

It’s just what the kids’ need, McFeely says.

“One visit to the nutritionist isn’t going to do it,” she says, “it just doesn’t work. It has to be ongoing and there has to be a lot of support.”

After 15 years of working with diabetes patients in San Diego, McFeely has experienced firsthand how severe the problem of obesity has become.

“When I first worked in Endocrinology at UCSD, back in 1988, we rarely saw kids for obesity,” she says. “Now we can hardly fit them all into clinics. We have waiting lists.”

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