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Kids struggle with diabetes
 Volunteering at Tides By Alani Gregory Just imagine going to a restaurant and ordering a plate of food. Before you even take a bite, you must estimate the serving size of each food on the plate. Then, you must correctly estimate the amount of carbohydrates in that food, add it all up, and then give yourself insulin. Now imagine doing this every time you eat! That’s the harsh reality of living with diabetes. When I entered my freshman year of college, like every overachieving-“Grey’s Anatomy”-watching- pre-med student, I began my quest to rid the world of all its health maladies. I was immediately drawn to an organization called T1DES (Type 1 Diabetes Education and Support), a student-run organization that provides access to diabetes education and support for children in inner-city New York. One application, a background check and an interview later and I was in. My first day, I sat in disbelief during training, when the facts and figures were spelled out. According to the CDC, 23.6 million children and adults in the United States suffer from type1 or type 2 diabetes. Every year, 15,000 children learn they have type 1 diabetes. That’s 40 children each day, according to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. Much of the focus on diabetes has been on reducing type 2 diabetes – the form of the disease in which the body either becomes resistant to insulin or doesn’t produce the necessary amount. In most cases, type 2 diabetes can be prevented with exercise, healthier eating, and regular doctor visits. With the great diabetes initiatives under way, I rarely hear any projects geared towards type 1 diabetics. The cause of type 1 diabetes is unknown, but scientists believe genetics and the environment contribute to the body’s own immune system attacking and destroying insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. It can’t be prevented by a simple prescription of more exercise and healthier eating. Organizations including JDRF are currently looking into possible cures such as, pancreatic islet cell transplantation. But, until there is a cure, it is important that programs are created that teach children – the population most affected by the disease – how to manage their diabetes and provide a stigma-free atmosphere. Once, we had a participant who refused to test her blood sugar in front of anyone. Her mother pleaded with us to help her test in public because not testing could have tremendous implications. Initially, we could not understand why she would not test in public, but quickly realized that she was uncomfortable about having the disease. By the end of the semester, she was testing in front of the other kids. Unfortunately, many children just like her, who feel embarrassed and isolated, don’t have access to programs geared towards their specific needs. The kids find comfort in meeting people just like them, often showing off their cool insulin-pump cases or sharing stories of when their blood sugar dropped so low they had to be rushed to hospital. If we begin to provide educational venues for children with this chronic disease, then the $58 billion dollars the nation spends annually on type 1 and type 2 diabetes related complications could be significantly reduced. Type 1 diabetes may not be preventable, but its long-term complications such as nerve damage, heart disease, blindness, and kidney disease can be prevented. These educated diabetic children will grow into well-informed adults who are armed with the knowledge to be guardians of their health. Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.
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Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love. Recent Comments
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Diabete rate skyrocketted since the early 1980.
I think by over 300%. The same time the high fructose corn syrup
came into the market place. Almost all junk or processed food have this junk in it. You eliminate this from all food. And eliminate the soda pop, then diabete will drop big time. But no, the world revolves around money and greed. Thanks to the FDA. First they allow this cheap stuff in food. Which means that the food companies make more $$.
Then they help Big Pharma with all the diabete medicine.
FDA are crooks and are not to be trusted. They want people to be sick
so that Big Pharma can make $$$.
I developed Type 1 Diabetes as an adult, but even the programs and education for adults are seriously lacking. I can only imagine how isolating it must be for children. From the few parents I have talked to over the years, the most common complaint I've heard is one I experience regularly as an adult. Don't treat the child with diabetes as a pariah: Might sound obvious, but many well-meaning adults project their own insecurities on to the kids and try to "protect" themselves, the kid with diabetes, and other kids around them from the illness. I know my mother still sometimes cringes if I "shoot up" at a public restaurant, and I see the startled and disapproving looks I get from other patrons when I do. But I don't intend to hide it, and kids don't need to, either. Acting matter-of-fact about it, like you do if a child is using an inhaler for asthma, recognizes it for what it is-a medical condition that must be treated.
Seems to me education goes a long way, not only for the person dealing with the illness, but for others in society as well.
I would also encourage the education to include parents as the kids' caregivers and support system. My education on diabetes occurred after I got out of the diabetic coma and watched about three hours of videos while hooked to IV's in the ICU before the hospital cut me loose after four days. But there were no suggestions for how my family could deal with it or any acknowledgement that friends and family are affected, other than the doctor telling my mother they "almost lost me" during the five hours she left my bedside to get some sleep. I really, really hope things have gotten better at hospitals since then.
Thanks for recognizing Type 1 as different from Type 2. The differences between the two are not widely known, but they are critical.
Ive been a T1 diabetic for 13 years. i was diagnosed 2 weeks before my 13th birthday and i had NO clue what i was in for. i luckily had a great team of doctors and educators teaching me and my parents about what the rest of my life would be like while i was in the hospital for 5 days. when i left the hospital 13 years ago, i was taking shots of insulin 2 times a day and my parents administered the shots to me, i was WAY to scared to stick myself with a needle. 6 months later i went to diabetes camp and the first night there i gave myself my first insulin injection. camp was such a great experience for me and its really unfortunate that many young people arent able to go due to not having enough money. i soon went on 3 shots a day and i finally went on a pump my senior year of high school. when i went on the pump, it opened a whole new world of doors for me. i no longer had to live on a strict time schedule, i did have to learn how to count carbs more but at the same token, i could eat a bigger variety of foods since all i had to do to cover for it was push a button. im currently on an OmniPod, a tubeless insulin pump and THAT has opened even more doors for me and it's the closest thing i can have to being 'undiabetic' (since i, and no one else can see the pump and im not giving myself shots all the time).
my mother, who has been an RN for over 35 years is appaled at the sad state of diabetes eduction. she has had numerous patients who dont know the difference between their Lantus and Humalog, or why they need to take insulin at all. many newly diagnosed diabetics, both T1 and T2, are put into an outpatient 'education' program that MAYBE lasts a day or two then theyre booted out the door to figure things out on their own. its really sad, considering this disease is ravaging our country.
of course, the stigma of this disease is almost as bad as the disease itself and THAT lends itself to the non-diabetics being uneducated. you have no idea how many times ive had people tell me i cant eat candy, i cant eat salt, i cant have any sugar at all...the list goes on. whenever i get one of these people, i try my hardest to educate them in the hopes that they will have actually learned something.
i consider myself VERY lucky that my team of doctors at Joslin are some of the number 1 endocrinologists in the country. the education i recieve is amazing and i am very thankful for the doctors and educators that sent me home with PACKAGES of books, papers and help when i was diagnosed.
Ed. Your comment shows the lack of education . Eating sugar does not cause type 1 diabetes. Please before you comment in the future think about the children and young adults who live with this disease everyday. I am a parent of a young adult who was diagnosed four years ago, and comments such yours give others wrong information.
I'm watching the show on kids with diabetes and our diet. I just wanted to comment on something I heard in the show – Americans are demanding better food choices, but their buying habits aren't changing – the problem is cost.
It costs more to eat healthy foods (at least anything that is convenience foods) so Americans are grabbing what is easy and cheap! The companies not only need to make healthier products, they also need to make them affordable to people. Look at the people who are obese – they are usually poor! The ones who aren't more than likely either have someone at home with time to cook or have money and can afford to eat healthy!
I do not know just why and or when did people in and out of government get the idea that they have a right to legislate what I can eat, drink, buy, and, how much of my own money I can keep. But I do know that they are dead wrong and it is just a matter of time before they find out. Dictating behavior from smoking to big mac's is nothing more than a fascist state which is not what I fought for. And I sure know that the founders did not have fascism in mind. Give me liberty or give me death ring a bell. Government and lawyers is the problem, not free will.
It was very enlightning listening all the information about this wide spread problem.I feel that the junk food problems are there because we make the conscious decision to eat this way because it's easier and the cost is less. The restaurants have made healthy eating so overpriced that when we look at the options it looks great but when we look at the price tag with it , well quite frankly we can't afford to eat right . I think we need to take a deeper look at the price tag attached to the healthy choices and make the "junk food" more expensive , therefore less attractive.
The major cause of all the kids related health issues are because of the kid's current dietary habits and also from the kid's family background. Family background covers various factors like food, health, hygiene, behavior, genetics and emotional aspects.
Dr Gupta's "Killer Diet" brought out some of the issues related to the food that we eat very often in this fast pace world. As both parents have to go to work to maintain a good decent lifestyle, there is little time for the parents to spend time in cooking healthy food and very importantly to spend time with the kids. Most of us, very often use the packaged products in some way or the other which always tend to have additional ingredients to maintain the freshness and flavor of the food. Do we know the long term effects of some of those ingredients, that we dont use in regular cooking, on the people?
Whenever I go to the grocery store, for curiosity reasons, used to read the ingrdients panel of so many food products and used to wonder, do they really need to have all those fancy ingredients to make that product. Even the kids food are loaded with so many compounds and sugary substitues that we dont use in our regular cooking. Eating such packged items every day, can alter the health of the person in due course of time. Consuming any thing, even little bit, every day can alter the person's health. This is the founding principle behind the homeopathic medicine.
The food color is another scariest stuff, most of the food products now contain food colors including some of the kids medicines. Nobody knows the long term effects of consuming these pretty colorful things little bit every day. Majority of the companies, make these food products to make profits (so that the CEO's can get big bonuses, hmmmmm frustration over the current economic situation), without considering the long term effects on the people including kids.
Also, the fresh vegetables and fruits are genetically modified to give higher yields (again to make more money and to meet the market demand), without understanding the long term effects on the people. It is also frustrating to know that the fresh fruits and vegetables still carry doses of pesticides used during the cultivation process, as shown in the test results http://www.foodnews.org/fulldataset.php. Also the organic foods that are available in the stores, how organic are they? Probably there should be an investigative report on the organic products as well.
More investigative programs like "Killer Diet" should be broadcast to raise the awarness level of the people. Similar kind of programs for kids promoting healthier dietary habits and the importance of exercises should be produced. In order to fight the growing health care costs, as a society we have to promote food and health awarness among the growing kids.
Doctors: PLEASE remember to emphasize to the PARENTS of children who are diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, that they MUST provide adequate supplies for their children, to leave at home, and at school, at all times.
School clinics, nurses, health care assistants, cannot facilitate the care that your child needs if the parents are uncooperative, and fail to provide adequate supplies, including insulin, when asked.
My 23 year old son has had type 1 diabetes since he was seven. At that time we lived on a small island in the Caribbean where he got great medical care (supplemented with trips to a world reknown doctor in Miami...we were fortunate). My son never wanted to go to a camp for diabetics or even talk to others with diabetes. I think he felt that would make him the member of some group he'd rather not belong to.
This is a bit off topic but parents that have obese young children are really killing them. It is ridiculous that these parents watch their kids get fatter and fatter over the years. Diabetes is no joke. If these young and newly diagnosed don't have control over their eating then they surely won't be able to control their new disease. That will make for complications and the list is no picnic. Parents: do your job and make sure your children are happy and healthy. Type 2 can be avoided. Those with Type 1 aren't that lucky.
Worse than sugar is fat, especially trans-fat and saturated fat.
We need to find a way to eliminate our intake of trans-fat and reduce saturated fat.
I am very impressed by your article on "Kids Struggle with Diabetes" Alani, I work for the Division of Diabetes Translation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and I am quite familiar with some of the issues you have pointed out. The biggest key to helping children from every race is education and support. We have noticed that Indians and thier children have been afflicted with this disease for several years, so we have launched a huge campaign known as Eagle Books, in "response to the burden of diabetes among Native Americans and the lack of diabetes prevention material for children." We also have an Exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute that will be on display from October 3 thru January of 2009, and have published four books to date. http://www.cdc.gov/Diabetes/pubs/eagle_exhibition.htm . Keep up the good work Alani! As a young lady I am very impressed with how well you understand the importance of volunteering. I will be following your blog to see what other topics you will be writing about in the future and if you ever come to Atlanta please feel free to stop by the CDC so we can give you a tour of our facility and help your TIDES program!
Ms. Gregory,
Thank you for focusing your article on Type 1 Diabetes and how it differs from Type 2.
My niece was diagnosed with Type 1 just a few months before her 4th birthday. I hadn't been aware that the age of Type 1 diagnosis is getting younger and younger. Unfortunately, traditional approaches written for newly diagnosed teenages are still age-inappropriate for the much younger newly diagnosed. Dosage and food portions are often trial and error.
Additionally, many initial diabetes education programs are only available several weeks AFTER diagnosis so parents are undereducated at a point when they need the most help. This results in parents taking their child home from the hospital less prepared for this very serious disease.
Until the media makes the distinction between the two Types of Diabetes in every reference to Diabetes, their generalization tarnishes the public's understanding of both diseases.
Not mentioned anywhere here is that the "normal" blood sugar rates as stated by the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health and other medical associactions have severely dropped over the last few decades. While attending a Diabetic education course last month, the CDC, NIH and others could not even agree on where "normal" should be. A few years ago, 140 was fine. Now, we were told 70-120 is fine, but these medical groups are already discussing dropping this "normal" maximum to 100 or below. This in itself explains part of the increase in cases of diagnosed diabetes.
Awesome article! Thanks for this great article. This is so informative. Keep up the good work. More power and Godbless:)