Youth diabesity endemic
Janelle Miles
October 16, 2006 12:00am
QUEENSLAND children as young as 12 are being prescribed blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering drugs to prevent obesity-related heart attacks and strokes.
Obesity is such a health problem in remote communities that one Torres Strait Island child was only six when he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Doctors considered type 2 diabetes an exclusively adult onset disease until less than a decade ago.
Endocrinologist Ashim Sinha, who conducts monthly clinics in the Torres Strait, said a woman diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at 13 had suffered a heart attack and required bypass surgery by 21.
He said another 19-year-old indigenous woman was legally blind and on kidney dialysis because of type 2 diabetes.
Obesity and type 2 diabetes are so closely linked, experts have labelled the growing problem "diabesity".
Dr Sinha has called on governments to subsidise fresh fruit and vegetables in remote communities to address the problem.
Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson, who visited the Torres Strait recently, admits the prevalence of diabetes in the region is shocking but says there's no easy solutions.
Obesity and diabetes in Australia
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