How serious a health problem is teen diabetes?
According to the American Diabetes Association, two million adolescents have pre-diabetes. That’s one in six overweight adolescents. 176,500 people under the age of 20 have diabetes right now. I’d say that’s pretty serious, wouldn’t you? In fact the ADA calls it “total prevalence”. Many doctors are calling it a health crisis for this country, or even a pandemic though that’s a word typically associated with a plaque or virus. What can parents do? If you have an overweight teen or adolescent, get them tested and see if they are already pre-diabetic. This means they have higher than normal blood glucose levels but the levels are not yet high enough to warrant a diagnosis of diabetes. If your child is pre-diabetic, take immediate, active steps to prevent the development of diabetes by getting your teen into a regular, twice-weekly resistance training program. Even if your overweight child is not pre-diabetic, it’s important to get the weight off to decrease their chances of becoming pre-d
