New Data on Type 2 Diabetes Treatment

Type 2 diabetes is a modern scourge among America’s children. It is a disease of the pancreas where this organ fails to produce sufficient insulin or cannot effectively use the insulin it does produce to enable the sufferer’s blood to maintain a healthy glucose balance. Insulin is an essential hormone that controls the flow of glucose through the cells of our bloodstream.

Causes of Type 2 Diabetes?

What causes type two diabetes is not completely understood, but it is a complex interaction of genetic and lifestyle factors. Parents with the disease are likely to pass it on to their children. South Asian, African-Caribbean and or Middle Eastern racial types are more prone to it.

Obesity and Aging

Obesity and aging beyond 40 also make it more likely that patients will develop type two diabetes. 

700 children suffering with type two diabetes have been tracked, helped and studied by the National Institutes of Health. Their report is printed in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Sadly, a disproportionate number of children developed high-risk factors for a number of adult conditions like cardiovascular and kidney disease. The children in the study are different to their parents who also had type two diabetes. The adults mostly had late onset of the disease and did not show the same rapid risk that their children showed. 34% of the kids had symptoms of hypertension despite being medicated with 2 or three drugs to control their condition.

Diabetes and Kidney Disease

A further 17% showed definite signs of kidney disease. Probably, the most serious indicator of all among the young people’s health was that one in three of them under the age of twenty who had high lipid levels. These are high-risk indicators of oncoming cardiovascular problems.

An encouraging and interesting finding to come out of this study was the drug’s Metformin, and Rosiglitazone were seen to be more effective when taken in combination than Metformin was on its own.

This isolated medication is the more orthodox treatment for type two diabetes. A conclusion of the study was that metformin on its own, when given to children, had a far higher failure rate than it does with adult patients. Metformin is definitely not as effective in treating type two diabetes in children.

This conclusion has significant implications for diagnosticians and medics who are trying to cope with the epidemic of obesity among America’s young people. Obesity is the big forerunner of type two diabetes in children. Given that obesity leads on to so many other health problems and not just diabetes, doctors are being required to be far more aggressive in their drug prescriptions and therapies in these cases.

Prevention of Obesity

Prevention of obesity is of course the far better course of action, and this is surely the responsibility of the parents of overweight children. Everybody needs to get up on their feet and live a more active lifestyle. Drastically reduce the dominance of TV and computer screens in the daily routine.

[box]Eat more real food that has no more than five ingredients on the label and is mostly plants . Sign off sugary fizzy drinks in favor of water and low-fat milk.[/box]