The June issues of Pediatrics carries an article laying down the risks for teens developing heart problems, cardio-vascular disease and diabetes.
The study compares today's figures with a study from a year ago called "Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Among U.S. Adolescents, 1999-2008."
Just looking at diabetes, we find that figures have jumped from 9% a decade ago, to a dreadful 23% today. That's nearly a quarter of all teens at risk of needing daily insulin injections to control their blood sugar levels, or risk coma and death - never mind the expense and loss of productivity, just the burden that his huge expanse of population stands to put on healthcare providers, could bring the system to a grinding halt, with a 64% increase in diabetics in the next decade.
USA Today quotes pediatric endocrinologist Larry Deeb, former president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association as saying:
"To get ahead of this problem, we have to be incredibly aggressive and look at children and adolescents and say you have to make time for physical activity ... because stress on the pancreas and insulin resistance catches up with people. We are truly in deep trouble. Diabetes threatens to destroy the health care system."
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