LONDON (Reuters) - Diabetes could spread in the current generation of fat, couch potato adolescents, putting more pressure on Britain's ailing healthcare system, doctors warned Thursday.

Fast food, a lack of exercise and too much time in front of the television and computer are causing a rise in childhood obesity that could bring with it an increase in children of a type of diabetes normally found in adults.

Children are usually diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which is caused by a failure to produce insulin, the hormone that helps the body to use sugar as fuel.

Type 2 diabetes, often called adult-onset diabetes, is common in overweight and obese adults and is linked to other illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

Doctors at the Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol reported the first cases of type 2 diabetes in white adolescents in Britain.

Until now type 2 diabetes had only been diagnosed in children from ethnic minorities in Britain, although the disease is becoming increasingly prevalent in adolescents in the United States and parallels a rise in childhood obesity.

"As far as we are aware, these are the first cases of type 2 diabetes described in white children in the UK, however, this phenomenon is likely to become increasingly common," Dr. Julian Shield said in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The children, three girls and a boy, were aged between 13 and 15.

Type 2 diabetes can be controlled with weight loss, diet and exercise, and drugs can also be given to help the body better respond to insulin.

Shield and his colleagues said doctors should be aware of the risk of type 2 diabetes in white, as well as minority, children so they can be treated early, thus helping to prevent complications from the illness later in life.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".