Type 2 diabetes

The discovery, published today in PLOS Genetics, was made by comparing genes involved with defects in insulin secretion of people with type 2 diabetes and those with Down syndrome.

Diabetes is the fastest-growing chronic condition in Australia with the preventable type 2 form accounting for 85 per cent of all cases.

The girl, from a Hispanic family, was diagnosed in Houston, Texas, by Dr Michael Yafi, a paediatric endocrinologist with the University of Texas. In a written presentation to the European Association for the Study of Diabetes conference in Stockholm, Yafi said she had been brought to his clinic because she was obese.

The girl weighed 35kg (5st 7lbs), putting her in the heaviest 5% of children her age. She was also in the top 5% for height and body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity.

200 pounds too heavy, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, sleep apnea, infertility and osteoarthritis. She needs knee replacements, but is too heavy to be approved for the surgery. She asks me, the “weight loss doctor,” what my plan is for her. And I think:

“What does it take to get referred to a bariatric surgeon in this town?”