Unless many people in the United States cut back on their food intake and exercise more, one in three U.S. children born in 2000 will become diabetic, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Moreover, black and Hispanic children are at an even higher risk, as close to half of them are likely to develop diabetes.
It is estimated that about 17 million Americans--close to six percent of the U.S. population--have diabetes, including undiagnosed cases. The condition can lead to many serious problems including blindness, kidney failure, amputation and heart disease.
Based on the CDC predictions, 45 million to 50 million Americans could have diabetes by 2050, and it would be unlikely that the medical community could keep up with numbers that high.
The number of cases of diabetes, which is caused largely by obesity and lack of exercise, tripled from the mid-1960s to mid-1990s and is expected to rise 165 percent by 2050.
While type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes because it generally occurred in middle-aged people, the condition is now affecting younger patients.
In the study, researchers analyzed data from a survey of about 360,000 people from 1984 to 2000, from the U.S. Census Bureau and from a previous diabetes study.
It was found that 39 percent of the girls aged 2.5 to 3 years and 33 percent of the boys are likely to develop diabetes.
Among Hispanic children, 53 percent of the girls and 45 percent of the boys are likely to develop the condition, compared with 49 percent and 40 percent for black girls and boys, and 31 percent and 27 percent for white girls and boys.
Diabetes is also a problem worldwide, as the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the number of cases of diabetes globally will double from 140 million to 300 million by 2025.
However, type 2 diabetes can be prevented by losing weight, exercising and following a sensible diet.
Walking 30 minutes a day and losing a little weight could cut a person's risk of diabetes by 58 percent, according to a previous study.
USA Today June 14, 2003
Last year the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that showed that 25 percent of obese children under 10 years 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; 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 years. Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult onset diabetes, but we are now going to have to rename that disease completely as it is an epidemic in children.
But we are in the midst of a diabetes epidemic in the United States. Diabetes has increased by 70 percent in 30 to 39 year olds, and it appears the epidemic is also affecting our youngsters.
Fortunately, we have a solution as in the vast majority of patients type two diabetes is completely reversible.
Two years ago, the top medical journal, NEJM, proclaimed that in fact one can "cure" type two 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 years without developing diabetic complications that result in stroke, heart attack, blindness, or kidney disease.
Exerciseis also unquestionably a big key here, and these children desperately need to stop watching TV and start exercising one hour per day.
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