Ground-Breaking Research Reveals Government Must Focus On Healthy Children's Diets To Prevent Diabetes

Date: Jun-19-2012June 15th 2012 represents a ground-breaking date in the history of diabetes research.
After twelve years the EarlyBird project has made significant advances in understanding
what triggers diabetes and cardio-vascular disease and the means to determine how advanced
these conditions are. The Earlybird research has worryingly shown just how early in life
the underlying symptoms of diabetes start, and how focus must move to early prevention
through diet not simply physical activity, despite the current focus of government policy.

The EarlyBirds, a randomly selected group of 300 healthy children, have undergone an
intensive series of measurements and tests from the age of five to seventeen. Since 2000,
the Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth,
Terence Wilkin has been leading the 'EarlyBird study' to find which factors in childhood
cause diabetes in later life.

The project aim is to help parents, teachers and decision makers in government to
understand the preventable factors in childhood that are responsible for the current
epidemics of diabetes and heart disease. This radical medical research will provide
evidence to help academics identify the causes of diabetes.

The EarlyBird study has been distinctive in combining objective measures of physical
activity and body composition, with annual fasting blood samples. These measures reach
beyond simple body composition (BMI and body fat) to metabolic health (glucose control,
insulin sensitivity, blood fats, cholesterol, blood pressure).

Critical to the success of the programme has been the funding of Dr Chai Patel, his
Bright Future Trust and the Patel family who will have donated over GBP1million by the
time the study is completed September 2013.

Dr Chai Patel, said:

"EarlyBird has developed and harnessed critical new advances in medical science in
order to challenge some of the misconceptions surrounding diabetes, and its causes, and
will undoubtedly lead to better medical practices being implemented to tackle the root
cause of diabetes-onset.

"We are all incredibly grateful to the volunteers who have shown commitment,
motivation and maturity which has been truly remarkable and would daunt most adults.

"I am proud to have been associated with a project that has massive potential to
change lives across the world."

Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth,
Terence Wilkin, said:

"When I was a medical student 40 years ago, type 2 diabetes was a disease of middle
age and beyond. Indeed, it was referred to as 'late onset', 'maturity onset' or 'adult
onset', and most died with it, rather than of it.

"In just one generation, a disease which afflicted only the elderly has become the
fast growing chronic disorder of childhood.

"We can confidently anticipate that, with these new data, we shall improve our
understanding of diabetes in childhood, become better able to detect the earliest changes
and thereby improve our chances of effective prevention - something that eludes us at
present.

"Importantly, the implications for public health policy are profound because the
physical activity of children, crucial to their fitness and well-being, may not improve
until their levels of obesity are first checked."

Courtesy: Medical News Today Note: Any medical information available in this news section is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.