| Bottom Line/HEALTH: | | First question is, can children get type 2 diabetes? |
| Osama Hamdy, MD, PhD | | Unfortunately this is absolutely true now. We have 12.5 million kids in the US who are obese by the obesity definition. Approximately 23% of them are at risk to develop diabetes. Also unfortunately, many of them already have type 2 diabetes. So type 2 diabetes is no longer a disease of adults. It is a disease of children as well. Anyone who has family history should be very careful about that possibility. |
| Bottom Line: | | What is the likelihood of parents with type 2 diabetes ending up with children with type 2 diabetes? |
| Hamdy: | | It is more likely. And some new statistics show that kids born in 2000, the American white population, the chances of them over their lifetimes to develop diabetes is one in three. In the Hispanic population, one in two. So you can imagine. And these are the populations that have shown significant weight gain as well. |
| Bottom Line: | | So that’s another reason for parents to make changes in their diets so that, as you said, the healthier you are, the healthier it is all through the family. |
| Hamdy: | | Exactly right. It is, you know, the entire family, entire environment. |
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