More children with Type-2 diabetes

November is diabetes awareness month. Statistics show by the year 2030, 30 percent of the population could have diabetes.

Type two diabetes is a chronic disease where high levels of sugar or glucose are in the blood. That can happen from being overweight, not eating well and not exercising enough. The disease is being diagnosed in younger people each year.

“In the first 30 years of my practiceI don’t think I’ve seen a child with type 2 diabetes, now it’s fairly frequent,” said Dr. John Liljenquist, an endocrinologist and founder of Rocky Mountain Diabetes and Osteoporosis Center in Idaho Falls.

He added lifestyle choices are a major component in type-2 diabetes. “We’ve raised a computer, game-boy, video game generation and the combination of poor food and no exercise has resulted into an explosion of childhood and young adult obesity that’s killing us from a diabetes stand point.”

It takes about 25-30 years for that sugar to build up in the blood and result in coronary artery damage, but if children are overweight that process early.

“If you’re five when it starts then you’re 35 just in the prime of your adulthood facing heart attacks and strokes, it’s just really sad,” said Lilijenquist.

Complications from type 2 diabetes range from blindness, heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.

“To the people young and old who are overweight with obesity you can choose your time of suffering. You can suffer some hunger pangs now and some exercise pain or later you can suffer heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, arthritis and constant pain 24 hours a day and problems with employment and marriage. You choose,” said Lilijenquist.

He added a new law that makes type 2 diabetes preventable.

It’s the 5-2-1-0 Law.
5 servings of fruit and veggies a day
2 hours maximum time in front of the television or computer
1 hour of aggressive exercise
0- zero fast food.