TYPE 2 DIABETES AND YOUR CHILD

One of the distressing things about 

Type 2 diabetes

 in young people is that it so quickly leads to serious complications, even more so than Type 1. Because of this, it is essential that we recognize the warning signs leading to diabetes at the earliest stage possible and intervene swiftly.
One recent Swedish study of kidney disease in young people with diabetes was especially chilling. The study looked at 469 people who were diagnosed with diabetes between the ages of 15 and 34. Of the group, most had Type 1; only 43 had Type 2. Over a nine-year period, 5.6 percent of the people with Type 2 diabetes developed kidney disease.
Another study of the same group of patients showed a similar situation with diabetic retinopathy (an eye disease that can lead to blindness). Fifteen Percent of the people with

Type 2 diabetes

had severe retinopathy,while only five percent of the people with Type 1 had retinopathy, and most of those with Type 1 had a milder form.
Both these studies show how dire the consequences of Type 2 diabetes are when it occurs in young people. In most cases of chronic disease, being young provides some protection. Overall, in cases of early-onset Type 2 diabetes, this protection is simply lost. Compared with people who developed diabetes in later middle age, young people with diabetes are 80 percent more likely to end up needing insulin.
The risk of a heart attack is also much higher. Older adults with diabetes have just under four times the risk of having a heart attack as someone their age without diabetes; young people with diabetes have 14 times the risk of having a heart attack as someone their age without diabetes.
The complications don't stop there. A long-term follow-up study of First Nations (native Canadians) children looked at a group of 51 patients who were diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1986; at the time, all were under age 17.
When they were contacted 15 years later, two had died while on kidney dialysis, three were currently on dialysis (one of them had become blind), and another had had a toe amputation. Of 56 pregnancies among the patients, only 35 resulted in live births.
Kids with Type 2 diabetes often end up taking the sorts of medications we usually associate with older adults. It's not uncommon to find 15-year-olds taking metformin (Glucophage) for their blood sugar, along with one or more drugs for high blood pressure and a statin drug for high cholesterol. Diet, exercise  and supplements (if needed) may preclude the use of medications. Life style changes are always a better approach.

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CAUSES OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Causes of childhood obesity, according to data from the third Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), 82 percent of children aged six to eleven reported eating at least one snack a day and those snacks made up some 20 percent of their daily calories. In order of frequency, the snacks were:
1. Soft drinks
2. Salty snacks, such as potato chips, and popcorn
3. Cookies
4. Non chocolate candy
 5. Artificially flavored fruit beverages
 6. Whole milk and chocolate milk
7.  Two percent milk
 8.  White bread
 9.  Chocolate candy
10. Cake
 11. Ice cream
 12. Fruit
As you can see, the type of snacks most children eat explains in large part why so many of them struggle with their weight. With the exception of whole milk, the only non-processed food on the list is fruit, coming in distant twelfth. With these two exceptions, all the other foods on the list are just high in carbohydrate but low in nutritional value. Most are also made with unhealthy hydrogenated oils. The same survey also showed that more than half of all elementary-school- age children ate on fruit on any given day. The same survey conducted on American kids indicates that the top five sources of calories for the typical American youngster are, in order, whole and chocolate milk, pizza, soft drinks, low-fat milk, and cold breakfast cereal, a particularly high source of sugar.
Three out of ten kids eat less than one serving of vegetables a day. There appalling statistics go long way to explaining why so many children today are overweight. TV trap A lot of junk food is consumed in front of the television.

But snacks aside, TV viewing alone is associated with childhood obesity.

In a study of sixth and seventh graders in California  more TV meant higher weight. Of the teens who watched less than two hours of television each night, 26.2 percent had a BMI (body mass index) at or above the 85th percentile, while among those who watched three or more hours of TV each night, 47.1 percent had BMIs at above the 85th percentile. Of course, even 26.2 percent of a group of kids shouldn't be faced with childhood obesity  but we know from other studies that less TV viewing is associated with a lower weight.

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CONSEQUENCIES OF OVER CONSUMPTION OF LIQUID CANDY

The consequences of over consumption of liquid candy is common with kids. Of all the things kids and adults shouldn't be consuming, sugary drinks top the list. Fruit juice may sound healthy, but it's really not much more than pure sugar in the form of fructose, without any of the fiber and other nutrients from whole fruit. (It takes eight to ten oranges to produce one glass of orange juice.) Recently, a number of supposedly healthy milk-based drinks have become popular, but they are crammed with added sugar. The worst of the worst, though, is most carbonated beverages. A typical can of what nutritionalists call

"liquid candy"

is so heavily sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup that it contains the equivalent of up to 10 teaspoons of sugar, to say nothing of the caffeine in many of them, which is associated with headaches, irritability, and sleeplessness. The average teen today gets about 8 percent of his or her daily calories from soda and other sweetened soft drinks; teenage boys are heavy consumers of soda, often drinking three or more cans a day. In connection with one of my recent article Consequences of childhood obesity, there's a direct link between soft drink consumption and weight gain. For every 12-ounce can of soda a youngster drinks each day, the risk of weight gain and becoming obese goes up.
The weight gain from soda is bad enough, but these drinks also displace other, more nutritionous foods. Today, many teens fall short of the recommended intake DRI of one or more of the following nutrients: vitamins A, B, C, E, and the minerals calcium, iron, and zinc. This is especially dangerous, as young bodies in particular need these nutrients in the proper amounts to continue normal growth and development.

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CONSEQUENCES OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Children who weigh too much get a head start on chronic diseases that ordinarily only develop much later in life. To take just one example, up to 20 percent of obese kids have hypertension.
A recent estimate based on NHANES 111 data says that among all kids ages 12 to  19, about 4.2 percent already have metabolic syndrome. And among overweight adolescents, a staggering 28.7 percent already have it. That means that about 910,000 American teens are already at risk of heart disease,diabetes, and premature death.

The problem is even more severe in minority communities. In Nigeria obesity is more common with kids from wealthy families. Among overweight Latino children, nine out of ten have at least one risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes,and three out three out of ten have three or more risk factors for the metabolic syndrome.

Impaired glucose tolerance is now common among obese kids. In one study at Yale university, 25 percent of obese children ages 4 to 10 were glucose intolerant; 21 percent of obese teens were glucose intolerant. And in the course of the study, the researchers found that 4 percent of the teens already had diabetes and didn't know it.

Heart disease and diabetes aren't the only health problems overweight youth face, they are most likely to suffer from asthma due to the increase in inflammatory chemicals caused by elevated levels of insulin. They also often end up having bone and joint problems for the same reasons. Overweight girls tend to reach puberty and begin menstruating at a younger age. This means that they stop growing sooner than other girls and end up as short, overweight adults. They're also likely to suffer from poly-cystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The underlying metabolic imbalance, combined with a probable genetic component that causes PCOS, makes these girls much more likely to become diabetic as they get older.

Children's mental health can suffer as much as their physical health.

Obese kids are greater at risk for emotional problems and low self-esteem,

and can become isolated and depressed, especially if they're teased about their weight. The flip side of this is that behavioral problems, such as being hyperactive or depressed, can lead to obesity. A study in 2003 showed that normal-weight kids diagnosed with behavioral problem were five times more likely to become overweight over the next two years than youngsters without a problem. Why do these children gain weight? Late Dr Atkins believed it's because they're "medicating" themselves with high-carb (carbohydrate) foods as a way to deal with stress and unhappiness, yet the very foods they use to comfort themselves only make the problems worse. And, according to a recent study, severely obese children (and their parents) rated their obesity as affecting their quality of life to the same extent as that experienced by children going through chemotherapy.

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