American study finds many obese children risk onset of type 2 diabetes
a condition that often appears before thedevelopment of type 2
diabetes, according to researchersfrom the US.
Many obese children and adolescents have impaired glucosetolerance, a condition that often appears before thedevelopment of type 2 diabetes, according to researchersfrom the US.
The study findings appear in the latest issue of "The NewEngland Journal of Medicine".
The study suggests that many obese children have a highrisk for developing type 2 diabetes.
Once seen only in adults, type 2 diabetes has been risingsteadily in children, especially minority adolescents --African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and NativeAmericans, according to reports from several US clinics. Instances of the disease have also been reported in the UK.
Although there are no national, population-baseddata, studies in Cincinnati, Charleston, Los Angeles, SanAntonio, and other cities indicate that the percentage ofchildren with newly diagnosed diabetes who are classifiedas having type 2 diabetes has risen from less than fiveper cent before 1994 to 30-50 per cent in subsequent years.
"These results strongly imply that intensive efforts toreduce obesity in children and youth who have impairedglucose tolerance will help to prevent their developingtype 2 diabetes," said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director ofthe National Institute of Child Health and HumanDevelopment (NICHD).
The National Institutes of Health funded the study which was conducted by scientists from Yale University School of Medicine.
The study to determine if obese children andteens have impaired glucose tolerance (a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes in adults) found that the children with impaired glucose tolerance frequently had insulin resistance, a condition that usually precedes type 2 diabetes in adults and is characterised by the inability of fat, muscle, and liver cells to useinsulin properly.
Eventually, the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas cannot keep up with the body's increasing demand for insulin, glucose builds up in the blood, and type 2 diabetes begins.
"The epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States hasbeen accompanied by a marked increase in the frequency oftype 2 diabetes," the study authors wrote.
The researchers tested for impaired glucose tolerance in 55obese children from four to ten years of age, and 112 obeseadolescents from 11 to 18 years of age. In all, 25 per centof the children and 21 per cent of the adolescents hadimpaired glucose tolerance.
The researchers also foundthat four of the adolescents in the study had silent type 2diabetes, a form of diabetes that doesn't cause anysymptoms.
"Impaired glucose tolerance is highly prevalent amongchildren and adolescents with severe obesity, irrespectiveof ethnic group," the researchers wrote.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and KidneyDiseases (NIDDK) is funding clinical trials to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes in children.These studies will try to develop ways to stem the rising rate of type 2 diabetes in children and to treat the disease safely and effectively in those who do develop it.
The longer a person has diabetes, the greater the chancesof developing the disabling, life-threatening complicationsof diabetes. US doctors are already seeing young people in their who are developing the complications of type 2 diabetes.
The prevalence of obesity has nearly tripled in US adolescents in the past 20 years. About 16 million people in the United States have diabetes. Type 2 diabetes accounts for upto 95 per cent of all diabetes cases.
