June 27, 2018, Spokane (WA Spokesman: Unlocking puzzles in pediatric diabetes http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/jun/27/unlocking-puzzles-in-pediatric-diabetes/ As more kids are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes – historically an adult disease – a new study has found that the adult medications being used to treat them don’t work as well to slow the disease’s progression. The study, lead by a Seattle professor, looked at children ages 10-19 in two groups: Kids with prediabetic blood glucose levels and those with recent-onset Type 2 diabetes. Researchers found that in youth treated with long-acting insulin followed by the drug metformin, and in a separate group receiving metformin alone, neither of these approaches preserved the body’s ability to make insulin. The medications also didn’t slow progression of Type 2 diabetes…. Kahn chairs the national study and leads the Seattle site. Researchers say that it’s clear from this study and others that Type 2 diabetes in youth is more aggressive than in adults…. This study raises questions about why medications that slow progression in adults don’t have the same effect on youth, said Lisa Randall, an Inland Northwest Health Services certified diabetes educator…. “What is happening is these kids are very insulin resistant – they’re making a ton of insulin, but it’s not working.” Giving insulin and oral medication to adults often works effectively by taking the burden off the beta cells to produce all that insulin, she said…. “These studies provide critical new information that helps us better understand why Type 2 diabetes seems to progress more rapidly in young people,” Kahn said. “This is important news given the growing epidemic of this disease in youth, who were previously spared of Type 2 diabetes. “What is getting more and more scary is that the number kids who have this disease is increasing.” About 193,000 Americans younger than 20 are estimated to be diagnosed with diabetes. The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in youth from 2000 to 2009 jumped more than 30 percent to a rate of 2.3 patients per 5,000 kids, a 2014 national study said….
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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