Title: Prediabetes on the Rise in Children: How We Can Stop It
Headings: Prediabetes Is on the Rise in Children — What Can We Do to Stop It?
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Prediabetes Is on the Rise in Children — What Can We Do to Stop It?
A disturbing trend
A strong link to obesity
A family affair

Content: Prediabetes “is highly prevalent in U.S. adolescents and young adults, especially in male individuals and in people with obesity,” concluded the study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. “Moreover, adolescents and young adults with prediabetes also present an unfavorable cardiometabolic risk profile and are therefore at increased risk of not only developing type 2 diabetes but also cardiovascular diseases.” Specifically, adolescents and young adults with prediabetes had significantly higher non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, systolic blood pressure, central adiposity (waist fat), and lower insulin sensitivity than individuals with normal glucose tolerance, according to researchers from the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. The survey, which involved 5,786 adolescents (ages 12-18 years) and young adults (ages 19-34), was touted as the most comprehensive epidemiological study of youth prediabetes yet conducted. A disturbing trend
The findings stand alongside studies showing an unprecedented rise in type 2 diabetes in the past decade. Type 2 diabetes was once referred to as “adult onset” diabetes because it was so rare among young people, while type 1 diabetes — the inherited form of the illness — was considered a childhood disease. Now, those lines have been blurred. The study authors said the research “highlights the need for primary and secondary prevention efforts tailored to the young segment of the U.S. population.” An estimated 1 in 3 adults
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in the United States have prediabetes, researchers said. “Prediabetes is very prevalent in the U.S., with about 85 million Americans suffering from this condition, and 80 percent do not even know it,” Dr. Anis Rehman, an assistant professor in the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine who writes the blog District Endocrine, told Healthline.