Type 2 diabetes is increasingly diagnosed in children, adolescents, and young adults. Young-onset type 2 diabetes is a major concern for health-care professionals: it is an adverse phenotype, with complications developing at an earlier stage in the natural history of the disease than in patients with late-onset diabetes. The younger an individual is diagnosed with the disease, the greater their life expectancy is reduced. Why is less attention being given to Young-onset type 2 diabetes? What can be done to prevent/control this emerging epidemic before it is too late?
In the area of physical activity and sport sciences, scientists have made numerous interventions in this population. The results, to implement a program of physical activity with predetermined criteria, are very satisfactory and demonstrated that an active lifestyle can prevent this disease. Here I leave two interesting articles:
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23400602
- Aznar, S., Naylor, P. J., Pérez, M., Angulo, T., Laguna, M., Lara, M. T., y López-Chicharro, J. (2010) Patterns of physical activity in Spanish children: a descriptive pilot study. Child; care, health and development. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2010.01175.x
Greetings!
Bulk of the type 2 diabetes has it roots in obesity (although, that's not the case with everyone). On the genetic level, the situation is rather complex. One of the clearly defined group is the case of MODY which is monogenic, maternally inherited mitochondrial gene. But this is a very small group.
So the fundamental question behind your (valid) concern can be easily rephrased as follows: why are people not learning to stop overeating and save themselves from poor quality of life and premature death?
Of course, dissemination of reliable information to educate masses is the key and perhaps the only responsibility educators and medical community can realistically undertake. The rest, as they say, is a matter of free will and choice...
Physical activity and in particular more intense activity is key alongside a balanced diet. 96% of children's physical activity is hi intensity and lasts for 15 seconds or less. So if children can get outside and play then this will help,. so Play is the key answer.
There needs to be definite criteria as to when to investigate a young person for diabetes . Adults are screened at > 40 years for Type 2 DM , as clinicians are aware of its role in detecting DM in asymptomatic persons . Childhood obesity & family history of DM should prompt screening at much younger age . Unless definite data are made available to clinicians , they may not be aware or reluctant to investigate younger persons . This is probably the reason for less attention being given to young T2DM detection .
It is not that less attention is being given to it, it is that we have become a sedentary society, especially our children who spend more time on a computer, texting , or watching TV than in some meaningful physical activity that burns calories etc. As physicians, all we can do is try to emphasize the positives of strenuous activity or physical activity at all , and diet versus the negatives of obesity, inactivity, and the potential negatives of diabetes II in teenagers and young adults should it develop. It is a nationwide cross culture problem and not a new one either. Remember President Kennedy's push for youth fitness in 1960s? Perhaps not, but obesity was recognized then as a contributing factor to ill health, including diabetes, and a national push was made to correct it. Physical fitness was a national goal at that time, and the program has fallen by the wayside over the years and obesity, and DMII has risen in frequency to its current levels. More screening, earlier screening, a concerted effort to combat obesity, and a push to" get out of the chair and do something" would be in order.
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