Once upon a time, type 2 diabetes was a disease reserved almost exclusively for adults. But as obesity has become more prevalent among young people, so too has type 2 diabetes. A troubling study on the disease was released yesterday by the New England Journal of Medicine, painting a stark picture of how the disease is now affecting America’s youth. The study is the first major look at this demographic, and it finds the disease is harder to treat in youngsters compared to adults and progresses more rapidly. Dr. David Nathan, an author of the study, director of the diabetes center at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School joins the program to discuss the implications of these findings. Sara Chernov, a college senior at Goucher College and a participant in the study discusses what it was like to learn that at 16-years-old, she had type 2 diabetes.
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