At the end of 2010, the Office of the Surgeon General reported that approximately 12.5 million children worldwide are overweight. With the rising rate of overweight adolescents, a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes is becoming increasingly common in American children and teenagers. While being overweight does not guarantee that a child will develop Type 2 diabetes, it significantly increases the risk.
Blood Sugar Control
Diabetes is a metabolic condition that affects the way your body handles glucose, the primary sugar in your blood. When you eat carbohydrates, your body breaks them down into simple sugar that travels from your digestive tract into your bloodstream. The presence of glucose in the bloodstream signals the pancreas to release the hormone insulin, which attaches to glucose. In someone without diabetes, insulin carries glucose to the cells, where the glucose is used as energy. This process allows blood sugar to return to normal.
Physiology of Type 2 Diabetes
In Type 2 diabetes, the rise in glucose in the blood signals the pancreas to release insulin, but the cells do not respond normally to the hormone, a condition called insulin resistance. As a result, glucose cannot enter the body's cells and provide energy. As glucose levels rise, the pancreas generates more insulin. Over time, this may cause decreased pancreatic function and an inability to properly produce insulin.
Overweight adolescents have excess fat cells. These fat cells interfere with proper physiological function and make it more difficult for the body to respond to insulin. In addition, most overweight adolescents live a sedentary lifestyle. A lack of exercise also decreases the body's ability to respond to insulin. Medical professionals used to refer to Type 2 diabetes as adult-onset diabetes because it usually only affected adults in the later stages of their life; however, this description is no longer accurate.
Symptoms
Many overweight adolescents with Type 2 diabetes go undiagnosed because symptoms can take some time to develop. When symptoms develop, they may include chronic fatigue, a need to urinate frequently and excessive thirst.
Managing Diabetes
If an overweight adolescent has diabetes, one of the first steps in managing diabetes is to reach a healthy weight. A doctor may prescribe a low-fat, low-calorie diet that can help promote healthy weight loss. Regular physical activity can help promote weight loss as well as increase sensitivity to insulin. In some cases, losing weight may help reverse Type 2 diabetes. It is important to monitor blood sugar regularly and to take any medications if necessary.
