Type 2 diabetes used to be an adult illness. Today the disease is epidemic in children, according to the National Institutes of Health. One-third to one-half of America's children diagnosed with diabetes have type 2, an illness that didn't used to strike until someone was over age 40. Not only is this adult illness afflicting a younger population, but it's hard to recognize right away. Type 2 diabetes has been described as a "smoldering" illness, one that begins harming the body without causing dramatic symptoms.

But catching Type 2 diabetes early or identifying children at high risk can reverse or slow down the health problems that ultimately go hand in hand with this chronic condition. Early detection and treatment may stave off other conditions that we usually associate with aging but are common with type 2 diabetes, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Although type 2 diabetes symptoms can be subtle at first, the group at greatest risk for it could not be clearer: Children who are overweight and physically inactive.

How can we protect our children from Type 2 diabetes? What can we do to improve their health? And why is this condition, which was rare in children two decades ago, now an epidemic among the young? These are some of the questions that reporter Laurie Udesky asks pediatric diabetes expert Dr. Stephen Gitelman in this special audio report. Dr. Gitelman is the director of pediatric diabetes at the University of California at San Francisco Children's Hospital.

Click to listen to Consumer Health Interactive's in-depth audio report.

If you'd like to read the audio script, click here.

Digital Audio Team

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First published November 4, 2004
Last updated January 16, 2007
Copyright © 2004 Consumer Health Interactive