Diabetes Patient- What everyone should know

The kind of person who would be considered a typical Type 2 diabetes patient has changed considerably over the past few decades.  Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult onset diabetes.  That was for two reasons.  One was to differentiate it from juvenile diabetes (Type 1), which usually begins in early childhood and  (unlike most cases of Type 2) isn’t caused by something the victim does. The second reason was that it was virtually unheard of until recently for anyone but mature adults to be diagnosed with Type 2, which is almost always lifestyle related.  Up until recently, the typical patient was someone in their late 40s or early 50s, almost always significantly overweight.

But now the average age of the “typical” Type 2 diabetes patient has dropped dramatically, as Americans as a whole have gotten fatter and fatter.  Doctors are now shocked to find that what used to be called adult onset diabetes is now one of the fastest growing diseases among children in this country.  This is a terrible tragedy.  The vast majority of Type 2 cases could have been prevented by eating right and exercising.  It’s bad enough that Americans are eating too many calories, too much junk food,  too little healthy food, and aren’t exercising much, but it’s even worse that they’re letting their kids do these same things.

Is your child overweight?  If so, you’re setting him or her up to one day become a diabetes patient.  It’s easy to understand why kids want to sit in front of their computer or video games all day, and love to eat junk foods and drink soda pop – they’re kids.  But there is no excuse for parents who let them do these things so much that they endanger their health.  And that’s exactly what we’re doing to an entire generation of kids.  Doctors are saying the current Type 2 diabetes epidemic is only the tip of the iceberg if our kids don’t start slimming down.  Don’t endanger your child’s health – make sure they eat healthy and exercise.