Absolutely horrifying — and completely unnecessary.
Some 39,000 adolescents may already have obesity-linked type 2 diabetes and and more than 2.5 million of our nation’s young may have impaired fasting glucose levels, which could lead to diabetees and other health problems.
Thus report researchers in the May issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
"Steps to prevent and treat the substantial number of adolescents who have impaired fasting gluocse from developing type 2 diabetes are required now," lead researcher Glen E. Duncan, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of epidemiology of the Nutritional Sciences Program at the University of Washington, Seattle, told HealthDay News‘ Steven Reinberg.
"These steps are well known and well established preventative measures — namely to increase daily physical activity levels and improve nutrition, and to avoid excess body weight."
Hurrah to Dr. Duncan for pointing out this important and scary phenomenon in JAMA’s important publication.
What’s frightening is while most adolescents with diabetes have type 1 diabetes, increasingly more and more kids are getting type 2 diabetes, a condition known until recently as adult-onset diabetes.
Now, Duncan told HealthDay, "roughly 29 percent of all adolescents with diabetes now have type 2 diabetes, and the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose — a risk factor or precursor to developing type 2 diabetes — is substantial in this population." .
To draw their conclusions, the researchers looked at data of 4,370 teens from a national survey of the U.S. population, the University of Washington’s press release pointed out.
Nationwide, we need to pay particular attention to the nearly 2.7 million kids with impaired fasting glucose. This means that their blood glucose is higher than normal but not high enough to be deemed diabetes.
In an accompanying editorial, recognized endocrinologist Arlan L. Rosenbloom, M.D. wrote that adolescents who are overweight or at risk for being overweight — "are going to require the kind of monitoring for cardiovascular risk factors that has been considered standard of care for older adults.
"It is to be hoped that the recognition of the public health time bomb reflected in the report by Dr. Duncan will lead to a pervasive societal effort to prevent obesity, a daunting task of such magnitude that enormous community and governemental commitments will be required," Dr. Rosenbloom wrote.
Around the world, we’re seeing this alarming trend. For instance, within the last decade, the rate of type 2 diabetes jumped 16-fold among overweight adolescents in Australia — with most of the kids diagnosed when they hit puberty.
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Need I explain why I’m posting this here?
Much of our nation is in SUGAR SHOCK! from consuming all of those nutrient-deprived, fiber-lacking carbohydrates, or what I call "culprit carbs." And an abundance of research suggests that being overweight can ultimately trigger type 2 diabets.
Which is why, for starters, it’s important to start feeding kids better in school, a move that’s afoot in many school districts across the country. And we adults also need to pay an example to our nation’s youths by exercising and eating right ourselves.
Need some help overcoming your habit of consuming sweets and refined carbs? Join my free, online KickSugar support group.