Diabetes in Children

According to an Associated Press story just released, Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan, a diabetes epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that one in three U.S. children born in 2000 will become diabetic unless many more people start eating less and exercising more. Dr. Naryan went on to say that the odds are worse for black and Hispanic children, nearly half of them are likely to develop the disease.

The 33 percent lifetime risk is about triple the American Diabetes Association’s current estimate.

Diabetes Statistics

Including undiagnosed cases, authorities believe about 17 million Americans, nearly 6 percent of the U.S. population, have diabetes today. If the CDC predictions are accurate, some 45 million to 50 million U.S. residents could have diabetes by 2050, said Dr. Kevin McKinney, director of the adult clinical endocrinological unit at the University of Texas Medical Center in Galveston. “There is no way that the medical community could keep up with that,” he said.

And in fact, Dr. Narayan went on to say, “These estimates I am giving you now are probably quite conservative.”

Jon’s Commentary

The bottom line is that Type 2 diabetes is pretty much a self-inflicted disease. Unfortunately, the advice from the CDC indicating that all you need do to prevent it is “start eating less and exercising more” is woefully inadequate. Other significant factors in the onset of diabetes include:

• Regular consumption of hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oil can increase your risk of diabetes by 40% or more.
• Eating too many omega-6 fats relative to omega 3-fats can contribute significantly to your chances of getting diabetes. Increasing your consumption of omega-3 oils to correct that imbalance can play a key role in reversing the problem. Bottom line: eliminate bottled vegetable oils (other than olive oil) from your kitchen, and supplement with fresh cold-pressed flax seed oil or fish oil capsules.
• According to an article in the July 30, 1992 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, “Studies have suggested that bovine serum albumin is the milk protein responsible for the onset of diabetes… Patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus produce antibodies to cow milk proteins that participate in the development of islet dysfunction… Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that an active response in patients with IDDM (to the bovine protein) is a feature of the autoimmune response.” And according to Diabetes Care 1994; 17(12), more than 20 well-documented studies “have prompted one researcher to say the link between milk and juvenile diabetes is ‘very solid’.” Bottom line: as much as possible, eliminate dairy from your diet. Check out the Now Let’s Talk About Dairy section in the April 7, 2003 newsletter.
• And it is certainly no secret that as refined grain and sugar consumption has increased in the United States, the incidence of diabetes and obesity has soared in lock-step. Health experts tell us that those who eat whole grains have a dramatically reduced chance of getting diabetes VS those who consume refined grains and sugars. What is less well know is that those who make whole grains and fresh fruit a significant part of their diet still have a higher incidence of diabetes than those who make carbohydrates a much smaller part of their diet. In the end, a diet of proteins, fresh vegetables (not counting potatoes), and natural fats (with minimal grain and sugar consumption) fare best.
• And then there’s the colon. A Harvard’s Nurses’ Health Study reported that women with diabetes had nearly a 50% higher risk for colon cancer. Scientists suspect that higher insulin levels may be responsible for both. But natural healers have long proposed that correcting colon dysfunction reduces the rates of both. And in fact, anecdotal evidence with tens of thousands of people indicates very strongly that periodic colon detoxes reduce the incidence of both colon cancer and diabetes.
• And finally, liver dysfunction is directly tied to an increased risk of diabetes. Periodic liver detoxing can play a significant role in preventing and reversing diabetes.

In conclusion, Dr. Narayan, in his warning went on to say that globally, the World Health Organization has estimated that by 2025, the number of people with diabetes worldwide will more than double, from 140 million to 300 million. “They estimated that by 2025, there would be close to 60 million people with diabetes in India alone. That’s about the size of Great Britain or France,” Narayan said.

Bottom line: a self-inflicted epidemic like diabetes can never be controlled with “advances in medicine” — only by fundamental changes in lifestyle. If you have not already done so, read Lessons from the Miracle Doctors and find out how to save both you and your children from being part of a worldwide catastrophe.