Diabetes and Obesity in Children

Another article about the shortening of Amercians life span due to diabetes and obesity.

Children who get obesity-related diabetes face a much higher risk of kidney failure and death by middle age than people who develop diabetes as adults, a study suggests.

The study offers some of the first strong evidence of the consequences of the nation's growing epidemic of Type 2 diabetes in children, said Dr. William Knowler, a co-author and researcher with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

The research also lends support to warnings that diabetes and other obesity-related ills are on the verge of shortening average life span in the United States.


The researchers calculated that the incidence of end-stage kidney failure and death by age 55 was nearly five times higher in people who developed type 2 diabetes before age 20 than in those who developed diabetes in adulthood.