Type 2 Diabetes, Once Considered A Disease For Adults, Is Increasingly Common In Tweens And Teens

Type 2 diabetes, once considered a disease for adults, is increasingly common in tweens and teens

For years, health experts have bemoaned the rise of childhood obesity in the United States. About 17 percent of kids and teens in the U.S. are now considered obese, a figure that has more than tripled since the 1970s, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A report in the New England Journal of Medicine lays out one of the consequences of all this excess weight: a corresponding increase in childhood cases of Type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when extra body fat makes it hard for cells to use insulin, a hormone that turns sugar into energy. Over time, blood sugar levels rise and cause blood vessels to become stiff, increasing the risk of life-threatening conditions like heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure, among others. More than 75,000 Americans die of diabetes each year, the CDC says.
Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes, because it would take years to develop. (That's in contrast to Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes, which occurs when the immune system destroys the cells that make insulin.) But these days, doctors are diagnosing Type 2 in school-age kids, and occasionally even in toddlers.
After reviewing data on 10- to 19-year-olds in primarily five states (California, Colorado, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington), researchers determined that 12.5 out of every 100,000 of them had a bona fide case of Type 2 diabetes in 2011 and 2012. That compares with nine cases per 100,000 youth in 2002 and 2003.
After accounting for age, gender, race and ethnicity, the study authors found that the inciden Continue reading

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Real Talk With Dave: Sleeping Through The Night

One thing that we as Type 1 Diabetics often worry about is going to sleep. I have experienced myself, as well as heard other Diabetics discuss how sleeping can be one of the most stressful things as a Diabetic because we are always unsure what to expect. What we worry about is not waking up in the morning as a result from a severe low blood sugar, ripping our pump sites out as we toss and turn in bed, then waking up with a high blood sugar due to no insulin going through all night, or just about anything else you can think of relating to Diabetes in the night. But that shouldn’t be the case. Sleeping at the end of the day should be a time to unwind and rest from the busy day prior. Everyone has their days when they are constantly on the go and working so hard that when they come home at night, sleep is an essential to healthy living. There are things that we can do, to the best of our ability, to ensure a peaceful sleep and a restful night.
After living with T1D for so many years and knowing your own unique and individual sleeping pattern and Diabetes routine, going to bed is much more relaxing and you are able to worry less. It just takes time and practice. I can remember countless times in which I would wake up from a low blood sugar at 4 AM and run downstairs, practically eat the whole kitchen as it is a common feeling to be so hungry and in a state of panic, to bring me back up from that horrific low. That is just me, but some others may not be responsive to lows in the middle of the night, as well as highs. In that case, having different ways to ensure you’ll wake Continue reading

6 Tips For Better Sleep With Diabetes

When you have diabetes, poor sleep can disrupt your blood sugar, your mood and your health.
An estimated 40 to 50 percent of people with diabetes say they don't sleep well, according to Dr. Kingman Strohl, director of the Sleep Disorders Program at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center.
Since quality sleep is so important to well-controlled blood sugar, making adjustments to get better shut-eye should be a top priority if you have diabetes.
Here are six ways you can improve your nighttime routine and get better sleep:
1. Lose the extra weight
Carrying too much extra weight can lead to sleep apnea - a condition that causes disruptions in sleep patterns and drowsiness during the day.
One study in 2009 found that 86 percent of people with diabetes experience sleep apnea, yet the condition can usually be quickly reversed once a person loses weight.
Shedding extra pounds will also correspond with better nutrition and exercise habits, which will both help to improve your sleep.
2. Have a routine
Having a routine for your blood sugar management is important for diabetes control, but it's just as important to have a regular sleeping routine.
Humans are habitual creatures that have set biological rhythms. Oversleeping, lack of sleep or an erratic sleep schedule are all factors that can disrupt your biological clock and affect the ongoing quality of your sleep.
3. Get tested for neuropathy
Diabetic neuropathy - a condition characterized by numbness, tingling, or pain in the hands or feet - could also be disrupting your sleep quality.
Restless leg syndrome, which may have simil Continue reading

Type 2 Diabetes Increases Risk for Heart Disease

If you have type 2 diabetes, you probably know about potential complications such as blindness, kidney disease, and amputations.1 But there’s another important, life- threatening complication that you may not know about: Type 2 diabetes puts you at a higher risk for heart disease.2 And with Valentine’s Day on the way, it’s extra important to pay special attention to your heart—not just for love, but for health.
As someone who studies the treatment of type 2 diabetes, I’m very familiar with the impact these kinds of complications can have. An estimated 29 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.3 These people are two to four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease (heart and blood vessel problems) than people without diabetes.4 Despite recent medical advances, about two-thirds of people with type 2 diabetes still die from cardiovascular disease, making it their leading cause of death.5 The reason? Diabetes can damage the heart and blood vessels, often in combination with other frequent conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, that can leave blood vessels prone to injury and plaque build-up.4
Not knowing is risky
Recently, a new national survey revealed that more than half of adults (52%) with type 2 diabetes do not understand that they face a higher risk of heart disease and related life- threatening events such as heart attack, stroke, or even death.6 Not knowing the problem makes it difficult to take action.
That’s exactly what happened to Malcolm, someone I met r Continue reading

Could Insomnia Cause Diabetes?

If you don't sleep well--constantly tossing and turning and unable to doze off--you know it can make you cranky and fatigued.
However, insomnia has a more serious consequence, too. It can boost your risk of getting type 2 diabetes, even if you are not yet middle-aged, and especially if it persists for years, new research shows.1
Researchers from Taiwan looked at more than 28,000 people with insomnia who didn't have diabetes at the start of the study, following them for an average of six years, and found the increased risk. That rise rose steadily with time, going up to a 50% greater risk in those with persistent insomnia compared to those without the sleep problem.
"It's not just one night that's the problem, it's night after night," says Elena Christofides, MD, FACE, chief operating officer of Endocrinology Associates in Columbus, Ohio, who reviewed the study. Quality sleep is crucial, she says, so that your body will rest and repair itself. The new study findings, she says, make sense and warrant attention.
Here is what else to know.
More on Insomnia, Diabetes
Experts have long known that sleep is important to regulate your body's metabolism and that being deprived of it can have ill effects on regulating your blood sugar and on throwing hormones out of whack so your appetite increases.
For the new study, researchers analyzed data from more than 28,000 men and women who were diabetes-free at the start of the study in 2001 through 2004 but did have a new diagnosis of insomnia. They compared this group to data from more than a million more people randomly selected from the Continue reading