With growing number of diabetes cases being witnessed among children, healthcare experts fear it as one of the biggest healthcare concerns seen in this new millennium. According to Dr. Sridevi Paladugu, an expert in diabetes treatment, sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits among children is the major concern for rise in diabetes among the young age children.
Diabetes is a complex metabolic disease affecting irrespective of age and gender. It is a condition where the rise in glucose levels in the blood (known as hyperglycemia) is because the pancreases are not being able to produce insulin or use it effectively (insulin resistance). Of the two types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2, type 1 diabetes or juvenile diabetes occurs mostly is children (10-15 years) and type 2 diabetes in adults (18-40 years). However, with the evolutionary change in eating habits, physical inactivity and stress makes the children more susceptible for type 2 diabetes. Globally, the rise in diabetes in increasing tremendously which is becoming challenging for the GP and the diabetologist.
Many studies have reported that the reason for diabetes in children is overweight or obesity, which is contributed by unhealthy eating, lack of physical activity, family members who have been overweight and rarely a medical condition. Consumption of healthy food and energy expenditure in the form of physical activity are imperative to maintaining healthy weight.
The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended in 2010 that children be screened for obesity by the age of six years and if they meet the criteria they should be offered moderate to intense (25 hours or more) diet, physical activity, and behavioral childhood obesity treatments. However, given the fact that obesity in children at the age of five years predicts later obesity, screening and treatment for obesity should occur even earlier in childhood.