Childhood Obesity & Type II Diabetes – The Link

Nancy Burrell – Until the last two decades or so, Type 2 diabetes was uncommon among children.  It was Type 1, the kind that comes on quickly and requires immediate care, that was seen most often. But with the dramatic increase in childhood obesity, there has been as much as a 50% rise in Type 2 diabetes in the pediatric population.

This type of diabetes, once called adult-onset, can go for 10-15 years before serious effects appear.  Those effects include high blood pressue, early cardiovascular disease and stroke, kidney failure, eye changes that can result in blindness, and even sudden death.

When a child develops diabetes Type 2 –and now we know that being overweight is “the most important risk factor”(pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/2/473) they are at risk for a lifetime of medical consequences, consequences not only for the individual but also for our entire health care system.

Why has this occurred?  A variety of factors have contributed to this epidemic situation, but most specifically, poor diet and lack of exercise:  the pervasiveness of vending machines in schools, the nutritional poverty of school lunches, cutbacks in school gym requirements, rampant sugar and refined carbohydrate consumption, all these have helped increase childhood obesity.

For reasons not completely understood, being overweight causes changed in the cells, making it more difficult to process sugar in the blood.  Simply stated, cells that produce insulin (the hormone that carries sugar from the blood to the cells) cease to function, resulting in decreased insulin sensitivity, impaired insulin secretion, and ultimately the beginnings of the disease process.

It may be too late to help teenagers or even junior high school students who have already developed Type 2 but there is still hope for younger children if we can help them acquire healthy habits and an active lifestyle.  By losing as little as 5-15% of their weight, becoming more physically fit and getting proper nutrition, overweight children can significantly lower their risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes