Researchers from the New York University School of Medicine have found a shocking 200% increase in hospitalizations for children afflicted with type 2 diabetes, Health Day reporter Steven Reinberg writes.
Let me repeat this horrifying news: There’s a 200% increase in hospital admissions because kids have type 2 diabetes.
NYU’s research team, led by Dr. Rhonda Graves, examined nationwide hospital discharge records from the years 1997, 2000 and 2003. They found that the rate of increase in hospitalizations of kids with type 2 diabetes dramatically outpaced that of children with type 1 diabetes by- 200% to 15%, Reinberg reports.
Dr. Graves and her team were slated to present their findings at the yearly meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Toronto.
Sadly, childhood obesity is the culprit, as children who suffer from type 2 diabetes are typically overweight.
Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University School of Medicine’s Prevention Research Center, says of pediatric type 2 diabetes "a generation ago, this condition did not exist."
"Epidemic childhood obesity has transformed a chronic disease of mid-life into a pediatric scourge," adds Dr. Katz, who wasn’t involved with this study. (FYI, Connie interviewed Dr. Katz for her book SUGAR SHOCK!)
If this country needs a wake-up call about how serious a problem childhood obesity is, this study is it.
This study and Reinberg’s article make it pretty plain: Childhood obesity is a major culprit in diabetes, and diabetes can cause devastating complications, even in kids.
"I personally know of a 17-year-old boy," Dr. Katz notes, "with early onset obesity and type 2 diabetes, who has already had a triple coronary bypass. If current trends persist, cases like his could become the rule rather than the rare and terrible exception."
This simply has to stop. Connie’s book SUGAR SHOCK! presents some compelling reasons for the childhood obesity epidemic (See Chapter 6), including ever-increasing portion sizes, over-indulgence in quickie carbs, and too much sugar, of course. Her book also delves into how that Big Food works to undermine our health efforts by specifically marketing their products to impressionable kids.
But, as challenging as childhood obesity is, we adults have to fight back harder. No one likes to think of legions of sick kids lying in hospital beds, but Dr. Katz warns that could easily happen if we don’t act to stop the childhood obesity crisis in its tracks now.
As this blog recently reported, high profile folks like Bill Clinton and Rachael Ray are jumping on the anti-obesity bandwagon. Perhaps this NYU study and Reinberg’s alarming story will help to get more people on board as well.
From Jennifer Moore for the SUGAR SHOCK! Blog