Type 2 diabetes is “rejuvenating” and is now seen even in schoolchildren. The disease may go into remission, but it is likely to remain for life. This was reported to socialbites.ca by Marina Shestakova, Deputy Director of the National Endocrinology Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Health, Director of the Diabetes Institute, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“If obese children have close relatives with type 2 diabetes, they may develop diabetes early at age 10-12. There are medications that can help keep diabetes under control, but it’s best to “get” kids into the habit of living a healthy lifestyle: exercise, weight loss to normal weight, diet. But such a child will need more willpower to control himself than a weak child who can eat anything,” he explained.
Now about a thousand children with type 2 diabetes are known in Russia. An important role in the development of diabetes is played by heredity, so parents should carefully monitor the health of children prone to diabetes, send them to sports sections to maintain physical activity and control nutrition.