Prediabetes increasing rapidly among American adolescents, study shows

• As American children get fatter and do less and less exercise the incidence of adolescent prediabetes is growing at an alarming rate, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics.
• A child with prediabetes is at very high risk of going on to develop full diabetes as well as having serious heart problems.
• If you have prediabetes your glucose levels are higher than they should be.
• If you put on a lot of weight and do no exercise, you raise your risk of developing type 2.
• Type 1 diabetes is when your beta cells (insulin producing cells in the pancreas) cease to exist.
• With good nutrition and a program of physical activity they would quickly move away from prediabetes and all the dangers they would have to face later in life.
• I have a friend, a doctor, whose 14-year-old son was obese.
• He bought him a treadmill and placed it in the living room (the boy was too shy to go for walks outside).
• The parents arranged with their son that in order to be able to watch TV he would have to do those 30 minutes.
• Then the walking time was raised to 45 minutes, then three weeks later one hour.
• The boy got fitter, not much thinner at first, but fitter.
• After 12 months he had lost a great deal of weight.
• Today, two years later, he runs outdoors, four times a week - about two miles each run.
• He went down from 110 kilos to 76 kilos.
• He still eats a lot, he says - but the running helps him keep the weight down.
• If you want to encourage your child to do exercise and he/she is obese/overweight, it is a good idea to get some expert help.