Type 2 diabetes used to be "for adults only," but now it's treating kids like adults and causing an epidemic among adolescents—and it's no fun at all.
Type 2 diabetes used to be called "adult-onset diabetes" because it was found almost exclusively in adults. But over the past 30 years, adult-onset diabetes has started showing up at younger and younger ages. It has even been found in children as young as 4 years old! What's happening here?
While researchers haven't come up with all of the answers yet, studies are pointing the finger at several contributing factors to Type 2: obesity (overweight), genetics, poor diet, lack of exercise, and even conditions in the womb before birth.
When personal choices contribute to a problem, it's easy to blame the people who have Type 2 for their problem—but not so fast.
One problem in doing that is, as with Type 1 diabetes, genetics seems to play a role in the development of Type 2. For one thing, not all overweight kids appear to be at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. That's where the genetic factor comes in.
Studies have found much higher rates of Type 2 in Americans of African, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian descent. Most children who develop Type 2 also have a close relative with the disease.
Add that genetic factor to a fast food lifestyle that has resulted in twice as many kids who are seriously overweight now as in 1970, and you get an "epidemic" of Type 2 diabetes.
Another reason not to blame kids with Type 2 for their own condition is that we all make bad choices sometimes. When those bad choices do get you in trouble, the best thing, the only thing, really, is to try and make better choices from then on.
In the end, all kids with diabetes—Type 1 and Type 2—will benefit from working together to cure the disease. One reason is that both types of diabetes can cause the same long-term complications. Also, by looking at the causes of both diseases, and treatment options, there may be common lessons to be learned.
One thing's for sure: It will take diabetes research to unlock the answers that could cure both diseases and their complications.
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Two Types: Compared Now that you know a little something about Type 1 diabetes, you should know a little about the other type. Far more people have Type 2 diabetes (an estimated 16 million in the U.S. alone, compared to 1 million with Type 1), so you will undoubtedly have to field questions from unknowing people who mean well but who confuse your diabetes with Type 2. | |||||||
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Type 1: Your immune system has destroyed the beta cells in your pancreas, so it can't produce the insulin your body needs. As beta cells stop functioning, you exhibit the symptoms of juvenile diabetes: frequent urination (sending out the unused excess glucose in your system), thirst, weight loss. These occur because of high blood sugar that results when the glucose is not used as the fuel your cells need. |
Type 2: The body's cells have developed resistance to the insulin it produces, so that insulin is less effective in helping the cells use glucose. High blood sugar is the result. Rather than cause the "acute" symptoms of extremely high blood sugar (dramatic weight loss, passing out), patients can often continue to function with ongoing moderately high blood sugar that damages internal organs and generally can make them feel miserable (sluggish, tired, irritable). | ||||||
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Type 1: Caused by no fault of the person who has it; it is a problem in the body that currently can't be prevented. |
Type 2: It is generally accepted that a large contributing factor to Type 2 diabetes is poor eating and exercise habits, which lead to excess weight. Genetics also plays a role. | ||||||
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Type 1: Can only be treated with daily insulin injections. |
Type 2: Can be treated with diet and exercise changes or improvements, drugs to improve insulin effectiveness, or insulin injections. | ||||||
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Type 1: Patients will have it all of their lives, until a cure is found through scientific research. |
Type 2: Patients can often have success controlling or curing the disease through changes in their own behavior, like losing weight and exercising more. | ||||||
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—Julie Mettenburg | |||||||
By Ann Coleman
Published in Countdown For Kids Summer 2002
Posted July 2002
