Overweight Siblings Of Children With Type 2 Diabetes Likely To Have Abnormal Blood Sugar Levels

ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2008) — Overweight siblings of children with type 2 diabetes are four times more likely to have abnormal glucose levels compared to other overweight children. Because abnormal glucose levels may indicate risk for diabetes or diabetes itself, these children could benefit from screening tests and diabetes prevention education. Researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia published their findings December 9 in the online edition of the Journal of Pediatrics.
"To our knowledge, previous studies have not specifically looked at the risk of abnormal glucose tolerance among siblings of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. This group has a unique combination of genetic and environmental risk factors," said Sheela N. Magge, M.D., M.S.C.E., a pediatric endocrinologist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and primary author of the study. "Clinical experience suggests that children with type 2 diabetes often have an obese sibling, which makes siblings an appropriate target for prevention trials."
The study looked at 62 children: 20 obese subjects with a sibling who had type 2 diabetes and a control group of 42 obese children. The groups were similar for age, gender, racial distribution (predominantly African American), pubertal status and body mass index over 95th percentile.

The researchers found that overweight siblings of children with type 2 diabetes had four times greater odds of having abnormal glucose levels (impaired glucose tolerance or type 2 diabetes) than other overweight children. However, investigators found no significant differences in insulin resistance, as measured by the homeostasis model assessment.
Type 2 diabetes is caused by a combination of both genetic and environmental factors. Known risks include obesity, decreased physical activity, race/ethnicity, family history and insulin resistance. Obesity decreases insulin sensitivity, as does puberty, when all adolescents experience a period of relative insulin resistance. In obese adolescents already at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the increase in insulin resistance during puberty may be enough to unmask disease. Family history is also important; 74 to 100 percent of children with type 2 diabetes have a first- or second-degree relative who also has the condition.
Not all children with a family history of type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance or obesity develop type 2 diabetes, cautions Dr. Magge.
The researchers also add that identifying groups at high risk for type 2 diabetes during childhood, such as obese siblings of children with type 2 diabetes, could help guide screening of obese children for abnormal glucose tolerance by primary care providers. This could also help to identify children who might benefit from participation in future type 2 diabetes prevention studies.
Dr. Magge's coauthors were Nicolas Stettler, M.D., M.S.C.E.; Abbas Jawad, M.Sc., Ph.D.; and Lorraine E. Levitt Katz, M.D.; all of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Research Resources.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (2008, December 23). Overweight Siblings Of Children With Type 2 Diabetes Likely To Have Abnormal

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Nintendo Wii: A Combatant of Childhood Obesity

When Generation X was growing up, my generation, we were expected to play outside with friends and participate in sports. The only video game console that was out in the beginning was the Atari . And really who wanted to play with that with the horrible graphics that it had. That quickly died out with Generation Y. In this day and age, children are going outside less and playing video games and using their computers more, becoming less active than children their age several decades ago. Until now, video games have largely been a fairly passive activity, resulting in few calories burned. As a teenage kid, video games weren't my cup of tea. I can remember times when I would play my Nintendo only when I was either on punishment or the weather was too unbearable to go out to play. I can remember getting my first Nintendo NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) for Christmas. I got two games. One was the popular Mike Tyson's Punch Out. At the time, Mike Tyson had just came on the boxing scene and was terrorizing everyone he came in contact with. The other game was Contra. It was a military style game where you had to go through multiple levels to save the world. At that time, video games were still new and a lot of households didn't have them. Fast forward twenty years later, now the opposite has taken place. Most kids have multiple game systems in the home such as the Sony's Playstation I through III , or Microsofts' Xbox or Xbox 360, or the one that is making a lot of adults and children alike get off their butts and exercise, Nintendo's Wii. During the years, I have watched Nintendo come out with various versions of their game console, and through it all, I have been a big advocate of them because they always seem to create a way to make their games more interactive as oppose to sedentary.

I can remember with the NES game console, individuals had an option to purchase an additional piece of equipment called the Power Pad or the Power Glove that made the Nintendo NES games more interactive. The Power Pad was a piece of plastic that reminded me of the game Twister because it had these dots that were on it that required people to stand and play the game. The Nintendo Power Glove was a electronic glove that fit on your hand in which people could use when playing the NES. The problem with the Power Pad and Glove were that those two pieces of equipment were sold separately so many families would just buy the main game system and leave the Power Pad and/or Glove behind. So more and more game consoles followed, the Sega and Sega Genesis, Sony's Playstations, Microsoft's Xboxes. The graphics and story lines got better and better with each new company emerging. As a result burning off calories while playing traditional video games was next to impossible. Majority of the game consoles didn't require that much interaction in the area of moving around. More and more kids started to invest more heavily in video game consoles and video games, which in turn with the combination of poor nutrition caused more kids to suffer from childhood obesity. According to the CDC, childhood obesity has been on the rise for two decades. It has currently topped out at approximately 18%, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. While some of this can be attributed to higher consumption of fatty foods and soft drinks, the bulk probably has more to do with inactivity.

Until now, with the introduction to Nintendo's Wii. Now for the first time you can combine video games with a high degree of activity, resulting in more calories burned and healthier kids. Wii is the new interactive video game system from Nintendo. Rather than sitting down with a remote control, the user must stand and mimic the actions that he/she wishes to complete on the screen. New studies are showing that Wii games such as boxing, aerobics, bowling and tennis, are helping users to get much needed exercise while still enjoying video games. God bless scientists. I even have a couple of adult clients who love to not only play the Nintendo Wii with their kids or family members, but they themselves find a lot of enjoyment and pleasure with playing the Wii alone. Some have gotten the Wii Fit to supplement the days when they are away from me and my training sessions.

Motion sensor-controlled consoles can make an impact on a child’s energy expenditure and calories burned, however parents should encourage outdoor pursuits such as riding a bike, or playing a quick pick up game of football, baseball, or basketball. If kids aren't able to go outside or can't find the time to go outdoors, the Nintendo Wii is the best substitute in the video game market in comparison to the other companies.

Liverpool John Moores University, scientists there have been hard at work measuring gamers’ activity levels, and found that playing Wii for 15 minutes boosts children's energy expenditure by 156%, compared to 60% using normal joypads on other consoles. They study continued to say that this calculated for the average child who spent 12.2 hours a week playing games, to potentially burn off 1,830 calories.

In conclusion, traditionally, video gaming systems are expensive, as are the games that must be purchased separately. In today's economy, setting up a video game systems can be a burden on a family's pocketbook. If you are debating to purchase a game console for your children and family this Christmas, the Nintendo Wii actively encourages gamers to get up and play rather than sinking further into a sedentary lifestyle. However, playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself. Therefore, parents and children should use the game console as an auxiliary to whatever current physical active that they have in place for their family and themselves.

Until next time keep moving. I have next on Madden Football on the Wii. Let's Go Panthers!!!

Reference: Physorg.com and Selfgrowth.com

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Why We Need An Obesity Tax

ALBANY, New York (CNN) -- Like many New Yorkers, I remember a time when nearly everyone smoked. In 1950, Collier's reported that more than three-quarters of adult men smoked. This epidemic had a devastating and long-lasting impact on public health.

Today, we find ourselves in the midst of a new public health epidemic: childhood obesity.

What smoking was to my parents' generation, obesity is to my children's generation. Nearly one out of every four New Yorkers under the age of 18 is obese. In many high-poverty areas, the rate is closer to one out of three.

That is why, in the state budget I presented last Tuesday, I proposed a tax on sugared beverages like soda. Research has demonstrated that soft-drink consumption is one of the main drivers of childhood obesity.

For example, a study by Harvard researchers found that each additional 12-ounce soft drink consumed per day increases the risk of a child becoming obese by 60 percent. For adults, the association is similar.

If we are to succeed in reducing childhood obesity, we must reduce consumption of sugared beverages. That is the purpose of our proposed tax. We estimate that an 18 percent tax will reduce consumption by five percent.

Our tax would apply only to sugared drinks -- including fruit drinks that are less than 70 percent juice -- that are non diet. The $404 million this tax would raise next year will go toward funding public health programs, including obesity prevention programs, across New York state.

The surgeon general estimates that obesity was associated with 112,000 deaths in the United States every year. Here in New York state, we spend almost $6.1 billion on health care related to adult obesity -- the second-highest level of spending in the nation.

Last year, legitimate concerns about links between consumption of fast food and the prevalence of heart disease prompted New York City to ban the use of trans fats in restaurant food.

No one can deny the urgency of reducing the rate of obesity, including childhood obesity. Obesity causes serious health problems like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It puts children at much greater risk for life-threatening conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

We must never stigmatize children who are overweight or obese. Yet, for the sake of our children's health, we have an obligation to address this crisis. I believe we can ultimately curb the obesity epidemic the same way we curbed smoking: through smart public policy.

In recent decades, anti-smoking campaigns have raised awareness. Smoking bans have been enacted and enforced. And, perhaps most importantly, we have raised the price of cigarettes.

In June, New York state raised the state cigarette tax an additional $1.25. According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, this increase alone will prevent more than 243,000 kids from smoking, save more than 37,000 lives and produce more than $5 billion in health care savings.

These taxes may be unpopular, but their benefits are undeniable. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that, for the first time in generations, fewer than 20 percent of Americans smoked. Lung cancer rates have finally begun to decline. As a result, we are all healthier.

Just as the cigarette tax has helped reduce the number of smokers and smoking-related deaths, a tax on highly caloric, non-nutritional beverages can help reduce the prevalence of obesity.

To address the obesity crisis, we need more than just a surcharge on soda. We need to take junk food out of our schools. We need to encourage our children to exercise more. And we need to increase the availability of healthy food in underserved communities.

But to make serious progress in this effort, we need to reduce the consumption of high-calorie drinks like nondiet soda among children and adults.

I understand that New Yorkers may not like paying a surcharge for their favorite drinks. But surely it's a small price to pay for our children's health.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Paterson.

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