Kids respond to oral medication

Oral medications may control symptoms of Type II diabetes in children just as well as insulin injections, reports a study from Ohio State University, Columbus. According to the medical records of numerous children diagnosed with the disease, oral medications reduced levels of a compound in the blood called hemoglobin A1C by an average of two percentage points. That is enough to decrease serious health risks and symptoms associated with Type II diabetes, suggests Milap Nahata, the study's principal investigator and professor of pharmacy and pediatrics.

High blood sugar levels leave a diabetic vulnerable to developing heart and kidney disease and vision difficulties; symptoms include frequent urination and excessive thirst. Diabetics normally show high levels of hemoglobin A1C, which is a marker for blood sugar levels. "This is the first study to show that oral medications may decrease these levels in children," Nahata notes.

Clear guidelines on the best treatment for kids with Type II, or insulin-resistant, diabetes, have yet to be established, Nahata points out. "It's only been within the last 20 years that we've seen large numbers of children developing this disease, and most oral medications typically prescribed to children with the illness have never been compared to one another or to insulin." Moreover, "Fully 80% of the drugs on the market have never been studied adequately for use in children."

In Type II diabetes, the body's cells do not respond to insulin, the hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels. Type II diabetes traditionally strikes overweight and obese adults. However, more and more youngsters have developed this disease due to childhood obesity rates nearly doubling in the past two decades.

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