Diabetes hits 5-year-olds

06 April 2016 - 02:43 By Tanya Farber
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
File photo.
File photo.
Image: Gallo Images/iStockphoto

For the first time children as young as five are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which normally affects only overweight adults.

Margot McCumisky, of Diabetes SA, told a meeting in Cape Town yesterday that about 350 million people worldwide had diabetes and this was likely to double in the next two decades.

The fact that children were developing type 2 diabetes was "extremely worrying" because the incidence of diabetes among adults was already high, McCumisky said.

"Before, it was very rare to find a child with type 2 diabetes, which is why it has always been called 'late onset diabetes'," she said.

"But now, increasingly, with more and more children being overweight, we are seeing this disease affecting them."

A new research paper published in the Lancet has shown that women in South Africa are among the most obese population groups in the world - ranking 9th in 2014, with 3.4 million affected - which is driving up diabetes.

According to the UN's World Health Organisation, by 2030 diabetes will be the seventh-leading cause of death.

It already causes up to 1.5 million deaths a year, and 90% of those who die from diabetes have type 2. More than 80% of these deaths are in low-and middle-income countries such as South Africa.

Katie Apleni, of Gugulethu, Cape Town,has high blood pressure and is constantly monitored for diabetes.

"It is a worry for me every single day," she said.

"One of my friends has had both her legs amputated because of diabetes, so it scares me."

According to McCumisky, every 20 seconds across the world a diabetes sufferer endures the traumatic fate of Apleni's friend and loses a limb. She said four of the main risk factors for diabetes were being over 40, having a close relative with the condition, being overweight, and ethnicity (being of south Asian, Chinese, African-Caribbean or black African origin).

Nutritionist Trisha McNair said the two factors individuals could control were calorie intake and exercise. "The most important strategy to turn up your metabolic rate is a daily dose of exercise of at least 20 minutes to an intensity that makes you out of breath," she said.

"This will burn up extra calories and can keep your metabolism revved up as the muscles burn calories to repair themselves."

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now