"The reason this is so important is that by the time type 2 diabetes is diagnosed, much of the damage to the blood vessels, the eyes, the kidneys, is already well under way."

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... For more information about veterans and type 2 diabetes, use our search engine ... here ...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=diabetes&op=ph

-------------------------

Basic tests predict type 2 diabetes

By Peggy O'Farrell

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100104/NEWS01/
1050339/Basic+tests+predict+type+2+diabetes

Doctors can use basic medical data, including blood pressure and body mass index, collected from children as young as 10 to predict who will go on to develop type 2 diabetes later in life, Cincinnati researchers reported Monday.

Doctors can also use the information to help patients prevent the disease, which one of the study's authors called a huge public health burden in the United States, the study concluded.

The researchers are based at Jewish Hospital, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Cincinnati VA Medical Center.

Rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity, are increasing rapidly in children and teens in the U.S.

"Until about five years ago, we very rarely saw adolescents with type 2 diabetes," said Charles Glueck, medical director of the Cholesterol and Metabolism Center at Jewish Hospital and co-author of the study. "Now we see one a week."

Type 2 diabetes increases a person's risk of developing heart disease, vision loss, kidney disease and other serious health problems later in life, said John Morrison, a researcher at Cincinnati Children's and co-author of the study.

The earlier a person develops type 2 diabetes, the earlier those other problems can begin to develop, he said.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from two long-term studies on child and adolescent health.

The National Growth and Health Study followed 1,067 black and white girls enrolled at ages 9 and 10 for nine years. The Princeton Follow-up Study tracked 822 black and white schoolchildren in Hamilton County's Princeton School District beginning in 1973 for 22 to 30 years.

Data from the Princeton study showed individuals were more likely to have type 2 diabetes by age 39 if during childhood they had high systolic (top number) blood pressure, a high body mass index (BMI), elevated blood glucose levels, low HDL or "good" cholesterol and high triglyceride levels.

The National Growth and Health Study found these factors increased the risk of having type 2 diabetes by age 19:

-High systolic blood pressure.

-High blood insulin level.

-Having a parent with type 2 diabetes.

Both studies found African-Americans were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

Both studies also found the health measures were good predictors of which children were least likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life, Glueck said.

Doctors don't usually test blood insulin levels in 10-year-olds, he said.

"But in obese 10-year-old, particularly if they're black, particularly if their parents have type 2 diabetes, then maybe we should start," he said.

The health measurements used in the study are all easily collected, Glueck said, and most are routinely collected.

Tracking health measurements over time can help doctors identify children at risk for developing diabetes - and help doctors work with families to head off the disease, he said.

"The reason this is so important is that by the time type 2 diabetes is diagnosed, much of the damage to the blood vessels, the eyes, the kidneys, is already well under way," Glueck said. "The best way to deal with type 2 diabetes is to never develop it in the first place."

The findings appear in this month's edition of "Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine."

-------------------------