Childhood Obesity - Do you have an overweight child? We offer tips to help your child lose weight and get fit!

Teenagers who follow a diet that is high in sugar are more likely to experience insulin resistance in adulthood, according to a new study on Queens University Belfast.

Insulin resistance is a condition in which the human body does not use insulin properly. Insulin helps the body convert glucose, a kind of sugar, into energy. Insulin resistance is related to diabetes.

• Researchers at Queens University studied the diets of 489 people ages 12 to 15.
• The researchers followed up with their subjects 10 years later, when the subjects were ages 20 to 25.
• For every 1 percent increase in sugar consumed as a teenager, the researchers found a 2 percent increase in insulin resistance as an adult.

This study was presented in the Diabetes United Kingdom Annual Professional Conference.

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Two new reports on diabetes in the United States indicate that the problem is becoming more prevalent throughout the nation, and especially among individuals who are severely overweight:

• According to research from the University of Chicago, the incidence of diabetes is expected to double in the next 25 years but the cost of treating it will triple, Spending will increase from $113 billion a year to $336 billion in 2034, when an estimated 44 million Americans will have the disease.

• The second study from Loyola University Health System found that one in five people with diabetes are morbidly obese. Morbid obesity is defined as having a body mass index over 40. A 5'2"person weighing 218 pounds and a 6'2"person weighing 311 pounds are considered morbidly obese.

"The greatest increase in obesity has been among diabetics who are morbidly obese," said Dr. Holly Kramer, author of the report.

Type II diabetes, which was previously referred to "adult-onset", is considered a preventable disease.

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Young adults who score low on physical fitness tests are two or three times more likely to develop diabetes two decades later.

Researchers with Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine reached this conclusion after analyzing data on almost 4,000 people ages 18 to 30 years old. The data had been collected during the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study. Study subjects who did poorly on treadmill tests were at higher likelihood of developing diabetes 20 years later.

"These young adults are setting the stage for chronic disease in middle age by not being physically fit and active," Professor Mercedes Carnethon, the report's lead author, wrote in the journal Diabetes Care. "People who have low fitness in their late teens and early twenties tend to stay the same later in life or even get worse. Not many climb out of that category."

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Researchers at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center found signs of Type 2 diabetes in children as young as seven years old.

Dr. Melinda Sothern studied 118 healthy children ages seven to nine years old. Some of the children had Metabolic Syndrome, which includes markers such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. This syndrome is usually seen in overweight adults.

Dr. Sothern found that the child's weight was the factor most likely to predict Metabolic Syndrome. Some of the children had fat in their liver cells and leg muscles, which is a predictor of poor insulin sensitivity and a link to Type 2 diabetes.

This study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association.

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The New York State Department of Health has issued a newly revised resource guide on diabetes in children. Titled Children with Diabetes: A Resource Guide for Family and Schools, the document is designed to assist families, school officials and others as they work to identify and prevent diabetes in children.

Approximately 9,000 children and youth in New York State are diagnosed with diabetes. Type 1 diabetes accounts for nearly 85 percent of diagnosed diabetes among youth. There are currently no known strategies to prevent Type 1 diabetes. (Source: EMax Health)

Diagnoses of Type 2 diabetes are also increasing in children, a trend that many experts attribute to disturbing rises in the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity. New York's new resource guide addresses issues related to Type 2 diabetes and helps parents, children, school staff and health care professionals devise plans for working together.

Labels: childhood_obesity, diabetes, overweight children, health_risks

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A national survey found that about 13 percent of American adults have diabetes, and 16 percent of teenagers have "pre-diabetes." The survey, which was conducted by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also revealed that 40 percent of diabetes cases remain undiagnosed.

Pre-diabetes is a condition characterized by high blood sugar that is not quite in the diabetic range.

Dr. Griffin Rodgers, director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, said that the new survey has "grave implications for our health care system. Of paramount importance is the need to curb the obesity epidemic, which is the main factor driving the rise of type 2 diabetes."

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A new study of teenagers with diabetes found that half of them are trying to lose weight. However, many choose unhealthy weight loss practices such as skipping their insulin doses.

Kaiser Permanente sponsored the study of 3,357 students with an average age of 15. About eight percent of the study's subjects had tried fasting, 7.5 percent used diet aids, 2.3 percent tried vomiting or laxatives, and 4.2 percent skipped their insulin. Girls dieted more than boys did.

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A small study from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found that overweight brothers and sisters of children with type 2 diabetes are four times more likely to have abnormal glucose levels than are other overweight children. This increases their chances of developing diabetes.

Dr. Sheila Magge, author of this study - which was published in the journal Pediatrics - said her findings could help identify children who could benefit from diabetes prevention.
programs.

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A recent study has discovered a link between gestational diabetes and obesity. Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (CHR) in Portland, Oregon found the onset of gestational diabetes during pregnancy significantly increases the child's risk of becoming obese if the diabetes isn't treated.

"Hillier and colleagues analyzed the medical records of 9,439 women who gave birth between 1995 and 2000 in Portland, Ore., Washington State and Hawaii. They discovered that tots of pregnant women with untreated high blood sugar levels were 89 percent more likely to be overweight and 82 percent more likely to be obese by the ages of five to seven years... than were children of moms without gestational diabetes."

Teresa Hillier, the study's lead author, advises pregnant women to make sure their ob-gyn is screening for blood sugar levels and that women diagnosed with gestational diabetes stick to their treatment program. Read more at SCIAM.com.

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Prescription data from three organizations shows that a growing number of American children are taking medications for obesity-related conditions.

"The numbers... indicate that hundreds of thousands of children are taking medication to treat type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and acid reflux - all problems linked to obesity that were practically unheard of in children two decades ago."

The greatest increase was in type 2 diabetes medication, which saw a 151 percent jump between 2001 and 2007. Source: The New York Times

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Children at risk for Type I diabetes might benefit from a diet rich in omega-3 fats, according to a new study from the University of Colorado.

Dr. Jill Norris and her colleagues followed 1,770 children up to 3 years old for six years. The children had risk factors for diabetes such as having a parent or sibling with the disease. The children who consumed foods high in omega-3 fats such as tuna, mackerel, and salmon had less evidence of an antibody associated with the development of Type I diabetes.

Dr. Norris, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, believes that some children may benefit from omega-3 supplements.

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Children and teens that are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are five times more likely to develop kidney disease than people who develop diabetes as adults. The risk of kidney disease is equated, not with age, but with how long someone has had Type 2 diabetes.

"Citing an example [Robert Nelson] explained, 'A 15-year-old person with 10 years of type 2 diabetes has the same risk of kidney disease as a 55-year-old with 10 years of type 2 diabetes.'"

Diabetes is becoming increasingly common among young people as obesity rates rise. While kidney disease can be prevent through proper management of diabetes, Mr. Nelson also emphasized the importance of reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity.

Labels: diabetes, obesity_rates, kidney_disease

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Health officials are now saying than crankiness isn't the only thing to worry about if your child doesn't get enough sleep. An ongoing study at Yale is researching the connection between sleep, obesity, and diabetes.

Dr. Sumit Bhargava, of the Yale Pediatric Sleep Lab is studying "whether obese children who have obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to become diabetic."

Read more online.

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Dr. Fuad Ziai, a pediatric endocrinologist in Oak Lawn, Illinois, prescribed Adderall, a drug typically prescribed to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD to an 11-year-old patient who was 30 pounds overweight. Adderall is in the amphetamine family and are well-known appetite suppressants.

"Ziai's approach to treating obesity - he says he has prescribed Adderall for weight loss to about 800 children and teens - raises an important ethical question: Has the obesity epidemic among children become so severe that it's OK to prescribe a drug not approved for weight loss when the drug can have serious, sometimes life-threatening side effects?"

The child's parents say they'd do again  they say that their son avoided developing diabetes because of the Adderall.

But, the Food and Drug Administration warns that some who take Adderall develop psychiatric problems and pediatricians say it's wrong to prescribe Adderall for weight loss. Read more at CNN.com.

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Overweight girls who lose weight before they reach adulthood are less likely to develop diabetes, according to a new study from the National Institute of Health and Harvard University.

• Researchers analyzed data on 109,000 female nurses, of whom 3300 developed diabetes.
• If a woman was obese when she was 18 years old, she had nine times the risk of diabetes.
• If she had been overweight at age ten but not overweight at age 18, her chances of developing diabetes were no greater than those who were normal weight as children.

"These findings suggest that ensuring that overweight kids reverse their weight gain is critical to their future risk of diabetes as adults," said author Edwina Yeung.

This study appeared in the journal Diabetes Care.
 

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Obese teenagers who haveType 2 diabetes show subtle abnormalities in their brains when they undergo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs). They also perform more poorly on tests that measure intellectual functioning, memory and spelling, according to a new study from New York University Langone Medical Center.

"Subtle changes in the white matter of the brain in adolescence may be a result of abnormal physiology that accompanies Type II Diabetes," said Dr. Antonio Convit, lead author of the study.

This study appears in the journal Diabetologia.

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A new study from the Medical College of Georgia concluded that overweight youth who are at risk for diabetes are also more likely to have weak bones.

The research team studied 140 children ages seven to 11 years old and found that one in three had signs of diabetes. This group had 4 to 5% less bone mass, a measure of bone strength.

"While overweight children may have more bone mass than normal weight kids, it may not be as big or strong enough to compensate for their larger size," said lead author Dr. Norman Pollock.

The study appeared in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
 

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