The incidence of childhood diabetes is rising: how to help prevent it

Not so long ago type 2 diabetes, also known as 'adult onset diabetes', afflicted mostly older folks. In fact, diabetes was almost unheard of in children. Today, there are many kids, not even out of grade school, who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and now carries the moniker 'childhood diabetes'. While doctors previously theorized that older people had an accumulated lifetime of excessive sugar consumption, causing their pancreas to be taxed to a dysfunctional state, where it could no longer satisfactorily manage the amount of insulin in the bloodstream.

Many adult diabetics are overweight and don't get sufficient exercise. Doctors tell their adult patients to lose excess weight and implement a regular program of exercise.

What's confusing about the rise of cases of childhood diabetes is that these children should be too young to have accumulated organ damage to the point of acquiring diabetes. So what's different today than say, 50 years ago?

For one thing, today, kids are far more sedentary than kids of 50 years ago. In some schools, P.E. Is not even required. Kids today are far more likely to take the bus home from school than ride a bike. At home, computers, video games and TV are the standard entertainment venues. As for snacks, well, they've come a long way, baby! While a glass of milk and a cookie or piece of fruit was what Mom handed out 50 years ago, kids today are more likely to have a soda and something heavy on the sugar. Even regular meals are often the 'pop it in the nuke' variety, highly processed, with plenty of sugar and salt added. If you compare the typical profile of the adult diabetes patient with the parameters described above, it's probably worth a look to see how childhood diabetes fits the diet and lifestyle of the adult diabetes patient.

All the extra calories probably have much to do with the high rate of overweight kids we see today. A recent study, conducted at a prestigious health institute, sought to isolate the factors most important in the prevention of diabetes. One of their conclusions was that being overweight exponentially increases the odds of acquiring diabetes and that excess weight was perhaps a greater risk factor than lack of exercise!

Today's kids are used to fast food and ready-made meals, in many cases preferring this type of food to the old-fashioned meals Grandma might prepare. They're fast and easy and they taste good. The problem with this type of eating plan is that, consumed as a steady diet, you will gain weight. Combine this with sodas as the beverage of choice and sweet snacks and you've got a recipe for childhood diabetes.

So what can we do to help prevent childhood diabetes? First, sit down with your kids and talk with them about diabetes. Ask them if they know anyone at school with childhood diabetes. If you have an adult family member with diabetes, discuss some of the health problems that that person has to deal with, including heart and cardiovascular problems, painful nerve damage, kidney dysfunction, vision problems and having to monitor blood sugar levels several times a day. Let them know that you'll be making some gradual changes to their diet. This disease is too serious to ignore. With the incidence of childhood diabetes reaching epidemic proportions, it's just common sense to take steps to prevent this insidious disease with lifelong implications. If you present your information as a scientific lesson and not as a 'punishment', they may be more willing to go along with the program.

Kids want to be healthy. It's up to you to help them stay that way.