For the first time, researchers have found that one in four extremely obese children under the age of 10 and one in five obese adolescents under the age of 18 in the US have a condition known as impaired glucose tolerance -- a precursor to type 2 diabetes.
The disease -- formerly known as adult-onset diabetes -- increases the risk of heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and limb amputations. The longer people live with type 2 diabetes, the more likely they are to have devastating medical complications.
The increase in obesity is probably the culprit behind the childhood cases.
People who are overweight are more likely to lose their sensitivity to the effects of insulin, the blood glucose (sugar)-regulating hormone. When the body ignores the hormone, blood glucose rises and, over time, can cause serious medical complications.
The good news is that changes in diet and increased exercise often can reverse impaired glucose tolerance, which, in turn, can prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes.
Impaired glucose tolerance is highly prevalent among children and adolescents with severe obesity. Although it is possible to treat obesity, it is extremely difficult and requires both extensive resources and a very highly motivated child and family.
The New England Journal of Medicine March 14, 2002;346:802-810, 854-855
Amazingly, 25 percent of obese children under 10 had either blatant or pre-adult onset type 2 diabetes. Please don't confuse this type of diabetes with the type that is typically acquired in childhood, or type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is pancreatic failure and requires insulin therapy to prevent death.
However, these children were developing a chronic degenerative disease that was typically not seen until one reached 50 or 60. We are in the midst of a diabetic epidemic in the United States. Diabetes has increased by 70 percent in 30-39 year olds and it appears the epidemic is also affecting our youngsters.
Fortunately, we have a solution.
Last year, the top medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), proclaimed that in fact you can "cure" type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise.
This solution will be relatively challenging to implement in a child, but they really do not have any choice. It is literally a life and death situation for many of these children.
It is hard to imagine them living much beyond 40 or 50 without developing diabetic complications resulting in stroke, heart attack, blindness or kidney disease.
Dietary modifications are able to reduce the rate of diabetes by nearly 60 percent, and following the Total Health Program is key. The other major factor would be to increase omega-3 fats.
Exercise is unquestionably also a big key here, and these children desperately need to stop watching TV and start exercising one hour per day.
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