Disease Proof

According to The Seattle Times a new study claims children with Type 2 diabetes are at a much higher risk of kidney failure and death at middle age. Lindsey Tanner reports:

The research also lends support to warnings that diabetes and other obesity-related ills are on the verge of shortening the average life span in the United States.

The study involved Pima Indians in Arizona, who have disproportionately high rates of diabetes and obesity. They may be "the tip of the iceberg, letting us know what's in the future for the rest of America if we don't do something about the childhood obesity epidemic," said Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital Boston. He was not involved in the research.

The results of the study are grim:

It involved a group of Indians whom National Institutes of Health researchers have been tracking since 1965. Of the 1,865 participants with type 2 diabetes, 96 developed it in childhood. The average age of youth-onset diabetes was about 17 years, although the disease was diagnosed in children as young as 3 ½.

During at least 15 years of follow-up, 16 percent of those with childhood-onset type 2 diabetes developed end-stage kidney failure or died from diabetic kidney disease by age 55. That compared with 8 percent of those who developed diabetes after age 20.

The researchers calculated that the incidence of end-stage kidney failure and death by age 55 was nearly five times higher in people who developed type 2 diabetes before age 20 than in those who developed diabetes in adulthood.

Remember children don’t have to suffer this fate, Dr. Fuhrman’s vegetable-based diet-style and approach to nutrition is instrumental in protecting against or reversing diseases like Type 2 diabetes. Take a look at this post for more: Don’t Settle For Diabetes

The best diet for good health and longevity is also the best diet for diabetics. It is a diet with a high nutrient per calorie ratio, as carefully described in my book, Eat to Live. When you eat a diet consisting predominantly of nature’s perfect foods—-green vegetables, beans, eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, raw nuts and seeds, and limited amounts of fresh fruit, it becomes relatively easy to eat as much as you want and still lose your excess weight. In my experience, those who follow my nutritional recommendations find that their diabetes disappears astonishingly fast, even before most of their excess weight melts away.