Diabetes in Children and Teenagers

Holistic Medicine Helps Parents Take Control of Their Child’s Health

Until recently, the common type of diabetes in children and teens was type 1 even called juvenile diabetes for a long time. With Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not make insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps glucose,or sugar, get into your cells to give them energy. Without insulin, too much sugar stays in the blood.

But now younger people are also getting type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult onset diabetes. But now it is becoming more common in children and teens, due to more obesity. According to the CDC, more than 208,000 people younger than 20 have diabetes this includes both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

What Is Type 2 Diabetes?
Your digestive system breaks down carbohydrates into a type of sugar called glucose. Your pancreas creates a hormone, known as insulin, that moves glucose from your blood into your cells, where it’s used for fuel.

In type 2 diabetes, the cells in your child’s body don’t respond to the insulin, and glucose builds up in her bloodstream. This is called insulin resistance. Eventually, the sugar levels in her body get too high for it to handle. That could lead to other conditions in the future, like heart disease, blindness, and kidney failure.

Children have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes if they are obese, have a family history of diabetes, or are not active, and do not eat well. To lower the risk of type 2 diabetes in children.

The single biggest cause of type 2 diabetes in children is extra weight. In the U.S., nearly 1 out of every 3 children is overweight. Once a child gets too heavy, she’s twice as likely to get diabetes.

One or more of these things may contribute to extra weight or obesity:
• Unhealthy eating
• Lack of physical activity
• Family members (alive or dead) who’ve been overweight
• Rarely, a hormone problem or other medical condition

What are the Symptoms?
At first, there may be no symptoms. Over time, you may notice:
• Unexplained weight loss
• Hungry or thirsty a lot, even after eating
• Dry mouth
• Peeing a lot
• Fatigue
• Blurred vision
• Heavy breathing
• Slow healing of sores or cuts
• Itchy skin
• Numbness or tingling in the hands or feet

Collin County in the U.S. state of Texas has a population of 782,341nas of the 2010 making it the seventh-most populous county in Texas and the 45th largest county by population in the United States. Per the American Community Survey's estimates, its population reached 1,005,146 in 2018. Home to some of the big name companies like JCPenney, Collin County has become a hot spot for lot of businesses consolidating or moving their operations within Dallas-Fort Worth. Among them are Liberty Mutual, JPMorgan Chase, the Dallas Cowboys, Toyota and insurer FM Global.

Money magazine ranked Collin County 6th in the nation on its prestigious list of "Best Places to Live for Job Growth." Collin County is one of the nation’s fastest growing counties in terms of population and job creation. A forecast from the North Central Texas Council of Governments says that through at least 2030, Collin county will double its population to 1.6 million. A 2017 study by The Perryman Group, predicted Collin County would keep growing at a rate outpacing the state and nation.