A Prescription For Health

According to HealthDay News, childhood obesity in the US is on the rise, being referred to as an epidemic. Recent research reports a 200 percent increase in the number of children hospitalized for type 2 diabetes.

The dramatic increase in pediatric type 2 diabetes occurred nationwide between 1997 and 2003, according to the study by researchers at New York University School of Medicine. They found that rates of hospitalization for children with type 1 diabetes increased 15 percent between 1997 and 2003, while rates of hospitalizations for type 2 diabetes increased 200 percent.

"The rapid rise in childhood obesity is now common knowledge," said Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University School of Medicine's Prevention Research Center, who was not involved in the study. "Increasingly, so is the concurrent rise in type 2 diabetes in children - a generation ago, this condition did not exist. What is now called type 2 diabetes was called adult onset diabetes until quite recently." "Epidemic childhood obesity has transformed a chronic disease of mid-life into a pediatric scourge," Katz added.

Type 2 diabetes, which used to be called adult onset diabetes because it was rarely seen in children, is typically diagnosed in patients who are overweight. Left untreated, it can lead to such complications as heart disease, blindness, nerve damage and kidney damage.

Let me see if I understand this correctly. Type 2 diabetes is typically diagnosed in people who are overweight. We know that children who spend more time playing video games are heavier, and are more likely to be classified as overweight or obese. Furthermore, playing video games in the bedroom is an added risk factor for overweight and obesity. And we know that bedroom TVs are linked with childhood obesity.

Now, I'm not a statistician or a researcher, but I wonder if there's more than a casual relationship between the increase in time children spend watching TV and playing video games, being overweight and type 2 diabetes? This news is frightening!

I was recently talking to a person at church who has been diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic. He has recently lost over 40 pounds, feels better than he has in years, looks great, and has recently ditched his insulin pump! Exercise and a healthy diet - now that's a prescription for health!