A new study, presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting and to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examines trends in diabetes rates in children.  According to HealthDay, the research team found that, in eight years, there has been a dramatic rise in diabetes in children: an increase of 21 percent for type 1 diabetes and an increase of 30.5 percent for type 2 diabetes.

Understanding the reason for this trend is complicated, because the causes for the two types of diabetes are different.  Medline Plus describes diabetes as a disease in which a person’s blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels are too high.  Glucose comes from the foods people eat.  Insulin is a hormone that helps the glucose get into the cells to give them energy.  Having too much glucose in the blood can be damaging.   Over time, it can damage the eyes, kidneys, and nerves.  Diabetes can also cause heart disease, stroke and even the need to remove a limb.

With type 1 diabetes, the body does not make insulin.  With type 2 diabetes, the more common type, the body does not make or use insulin well. Without enough insulin, the glucose stays in the blood.  Pregnant women can also get diabetes, called gestational diabetes.

For type 2 diabetes, the researchers theorize that the trends seen could be related to the obesity epidemic.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that, in the last 30 years, the proportion of children that are obese has more than doubled.  In fact, as of 2010, one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese, according to the CDC.

For type 1 diabetes, the causes are unclear.  It is likely that something has changed in the environment, either in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world.  As a result, more youth are developing type 1 diabetes and they may be developing it earlier in their lives.  More research is needed to understand the cause of this trend as well as how to curb it.