Treating insulin resistance
in children can prevent or delay diabetes.
Researchers have found that overweight and unfit
children are at an increased risk of developing insulin resistance, an early
symptom of diabetes, thus suggesting that improving fitness or reducing body fat
could protect such high-risk children.
According to reports presented at the 43rd
Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention,
insulin sensitivity is a measure of how well the body responds to insulin, a
hormone that transports carbohydrates from the blood into cells where they are
turned into energy. High insulin sensitivity means the body is responding well
to insulin. Low insulin sensitivity - also called insulin resistance - is often
a precursor to diabetes.
"This is the first study to look at these
questions in a large group of adolescents that includes both blacks and whites
and males and females," says lead author Bernard Gutin, Ph.D., professor of
pediatrics and physiology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.
The researchers found that race and gender were
related to insulin sensitivity, which was highest among white girls and lowest
among black girls. In addition, boys had higher cardiovascular fitness than
girls, as well as lower percent body fat.
When the researchers controlled for race and
gender, they found that higher cardiovascular fitness and lower body fat were
independently associated with greater insulin sensitivity.
"This is an important finding because some people
think that body fat is the critical factor in the development of diabetes," he
says. "We found that it was certainly very important, but that even after
adjusting for it, fitness still made an independent contribution."
The mystery of the early course of diabetes is
getting a lot of attention now because the last two decades have seen an
explosion in the number of teenagers with type 2 diabetes, a condition once
called "adult-onset" diabetes because it was so rare in young people, he says.
Though insulin resistance is not diabetes, it is
often a prelude to the disease, the researchers say.
In people with low insulin sensitivity, the body
makes insulin but can't use it efficiently to break down glucose into energy,
requiring a greater-than-average amount of insulin to transport an average
amount of glucose.
Gutin says the study findings are important
because they indicate that "every child can benefit from higher fitness and
lower fatness." The only oral medication approved for children is metformin.
Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com.
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