Type 2 In Children

It is bad enough that I came down with diabetes in my mid–sixties; I cannot even imagine what it is like to get diabetes in your pre-teen or teen years.

Type 2 diabetes in kids not child’s play
Politico
By TOM DASCHLE
5/9/12

If ever we needed a wake-up call on the state of American children’s health, consider the growing proliferation of Type 2 diabetes in our youth, as detailed in a study recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine. These findings, which warn of many children and adolescents’ alarming future of poor health, are yet another reminder of the serious challenges we face in health care today.

Failure to invest in prevention of this disease for our youngest citizens is a decision to subject them to medical complications, a poorer quality of life and even, in some cases, premature death. The price we all pay by falling short on prevention is sure to be measured beyond simple dollar figures.
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Approximately 215,000 Americans younger than 20 years of age were living with diabetes in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and an additional 3,600 are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes each year. These numbers are even more sobering in vulnerable, low-income and minority communities.
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In addition, the risk of associated serious complications — heart disease, blindness, kidney failure and amputations — only increases with its duration. So our young people are more likely to suffer from debilitating complications for much of their lives.

An article in USA Today said that,

Diabetes and pre-diabetes have skyrocketed among the nation's young people, jumping from 9% of the adolescent population in 2000 to 23% in 2008, a study reports today.

Diabetes in children is more sinister than in adults according to an article in the New York Times…

Obesity-Linked Diabetes in Children Resists Treatment
By DENISE GRADY
Published: April 29, 2012

Obesity and the form of diabetes linked to it are taking an even worse toll on America’s youths than medical experts had realized. As obesity rates in children have climbed, so has the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, and a new study adds another worry: the disease progresses more rapidly in children than in adults and is harder to treat.

“It’s frightening how severe this metabolic disease is in children,” said Dr. David M. Nathan, an author of the study and director of the diabetes center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It’s really got a hold on them, and it’s hard to turn around.”
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The study followed 699 children ages 10 to 17 at medical centers around the country for about four years. It found that the usual oral medicine for Type 2 diabetes stopped working in about half of the patients within a few years, and they had to add daily shots of insulin to control their blood sugar. Researchers said they were shocked by how poorly the oral drugs performed because they work much better in adults.
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The current study was meant to find the best treatment. The participants were all overweight, some very obese. All, with a parent or guardian, got diabetes education. They were then assigned at random to one of three groups. One group took only metformin, a standard diabetes pill (also called Glucophage). Another took metformin and a second drug, rosiglitazone (also called Avandia). A third group took metformin and went through an intensive diet, exercise and weight-loss program (which has worked in adults). They were followed for an average of about four years.

The results were disappointing: all three regimens had high failure rates, meaning that they could not control blood sugar. Metformin alone failed in 52 percent of patients, metformin plus rosiglitazone failed in 39 percent, and metformin plus the diet program failed in 47 percent. Metformin alone was least effective in blacks, and metformin combined with rosiglitazone worked better in girls than in boys. The failure rates were high even in the patients who adhered most strictly to their treatment programs. 

I am worried about my nephew’s daughter who is overweight and she is only ten. My nephew and his wife buy only organic food because they are concerned about pesticides and processed foods. But at the same time they see their daughter is overweight and they are not concerned about that. I think her being overweight is a bigger issue and more life threatening than pesticides.