There are many health problems that affect our country, although in the end most are related to each other. One that is mentioned frequently is obesity in minors which is on the rise. But there is also another that is often not talked about because it is thought that it is exclusive to adults but it is not. It is about childhood diabetes that has an increasing presence in Mexico.
X-ray of a public health problem
To get an idea of the current panorama, our country already occupies the sixth place in the world in terms of the number of people who suffer from it. Currently there are 542,000 children living with type 1 and almost 78,000 infants develop it each year. In 2016 the incidence of modality 2 was 2.05 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and in 2020 the figure rose to 2.9, said Ana Lilia Rodríguez Ventura, an academic from the Faculty of Medicine (FM) of UNAM.
“Before the 90s, out of every 100 little ones we had with this disease, only two percent corresponded to type 2, and now it has increased up to 22 times. It is serious because it can be prevented, not type 1 ”.
The also pediatrician and endocrinologist of the Children’s Hospital of Mexico “Federico Gómez” He said that 2 prevails in people over 40 years of age, but the most alarming thing is that children between eight and 10 years of age, as well as adolescents, already suffer from it.
Why does it originate?
In the case of type 1 diabetes in children, it is not known with precision what the biological causes are. There are various theories, including early exposure to dairy formulas and infections by some viruses, where foreign molecules cause the Beta cells found in the pancreas to “self-destruct”, making it impossible to glucose self-regulation.
The academic from the Department of Embryology and Genetics of the FM, commented that in 2 the environmental factor influences more, for example if the mother carries her pregnancy with gestational diabetes, which increases the chances that her child may also have it.
The Doctor of Medical Sciences added that the racial aspect also affects, or having been born macrosomic, that is, with a weight greater than four kilograms, or below 2.5 kilograms. Also, prematurity, in addition to lack of breastfeeding.
“However, in the case of 1, it is possible to have an acute picture, even sometimes with days or weeks of evolution, with a triad of symptoms: great thirst and appetite, constant desire to urinate, accompanied by weight loss . In the case of type 2 it is more insidious, it happens little by little ”.
In 2, the trigger is being overweight or obese. The adiposity that occurs due to excess fat will cause inflammation in the infant’s organs, which deteriorates the functioning of Beta cells, resistance and even deficiency in the production of insulin, he added.
In conclusion, Ana Lilia Rodríguez indicated that 75 percent of Mexican adults suffer from accumulation or excess of fat and 35 percent of infants.