Diabetes in children is leading to several associated complications, such as obesity. Tim McAleer is only 17 years old but he’s already fighting obesity. Tim suffers from glucose intolerance which is the precursor to of elevated blood sugars. His diet is the big reason.
“Most of my diet was stuff like macaroni and cheese and hot dogs,” says Tim.
Tim’s father, who is a diabetic and has high blood pressure, can understand Tim’s struggle with obesity and childhood obesity. “Both my wife and I have had weight problems all our life,” says Mike McAleer.
According to the 1999 to 2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Tim is among the 15 percent of young people ages 6 to 19 who are overweight, a number nearly triple the 1980 rate.
As a result the incidence of type 2 diabetes in children, a disease that has primarily been seen in adults only, is now seeing a rapid increase.
“We are seeing 14 and 15 year old adolescents who are extremely obese, weighing as much as 250 lbs who came down with diabetes,” says Dr. Silva Arslanian of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh is one of 12 medical centers around the country studying type 2 diabetes in children.
“The rate of increasing obesity is becoming even more exaggerated, so I think it’s just a matter of obesity pulling the trigger for type 2 diabetes in children,” says Dr. Silva Arslanian.
Diabetes is a condition where the body does not produce, or is resistant to insulin.
Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas which is needed in order to move sugar from the blood into the cells where it can be used as energy or stored for later use. If there is a resistance or lack of production of insulin, the sugar cannot be taken up by the cells, and remains in the blood stream where it can, in the long run, cause damage to the entire body.
“Sedentary lifestyles and increases consumption of sugar are some of the factors causing more and more insulin resistance, increasing the demand on the pancreas to increase insulin secretion,” explains Dr. Arslanian.
The clinical study will evaluate the safety and effects of treatments of type 2 diabetes in children and teens.
“We have to change the lifestyle. It’s a fight against societal influences, industrial influences promoting unhealthy food consumption, and unhealthy lifestyles as typified by video games,” says Dr. Arslanian.
Tim admits that he does spend hours sedentary at his computer. But as a member of the study, he now knows that he must get moving.
“I want to lose a little bit of weight and try to get more healthy,” says Tim.
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