Arizona program tries to prevent juvenile type II diabetes through education

• For nearly 15 hours a week, Dobson High School basketball player Erik Hagen sprints through fast-paced scrimmages and drills hoping to one day land a college scholarship.
• At first glance, the physically gifted 17-year-old junior seems to be a model of perfect health.
• That is until you see the tiny tube joining an insulin pump to his abdomen, providing him insulin that his body no longer produces.
• Hagen's condition is genetic, but hundreds of other children are being diagnosed with Type II diabetes, a disease that was once only found in older, often overweight adults with poor circulation and insulin sensitivity.
• With obesity rates rising among children, Type II diabetes has become prevalent in junior high and high schools nationwide.
• To head off diabetes issues before they begin, Janice Jones, school education coordinator with the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, is leading seminars at Valley schools and recreation centers for parents and children.
• On Saturday, she will hold informational meetings at two local Gold's Gym locations, which provide the perfect settings to expose the connections between fitness, nutrition and diabetes, Jones said.
• The treatment for Type II diabetes is also the best way to prevent it, said Sherrill Stephenson, 41, a registered dietician and personal trainer at Gold's Gym.
• Coupled by poor nutrition, these sedentary children are at risk of becoming obese and eventually diabetic.
• "Students are not getting the exercise they need and they don't seem to understand the basics of nutrition," she said.
• "It has really affected teenagers who will take it further into life if they don't get a handle on it now."
• Although the seminars are directed at a younger audience, Jones said anybody could learn the basics from her discussion.