New York. Health experts blame the increasing number of American children diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes on burgeoning rates of obesity among children and adolescents during the past three decades.

Experts label the disease – which until recently was known as adult-onset diabetes because it occurred predominately in men and women older than 50 – an emerging epidemic.

Type 1 diabetes, which requires insulin treatment, was thought to be the only form of the disease that occurred in children and adolescents.

Among adults, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure and limb loss. It also is a major cause of heart disease and the sixth leading cause of death, said Gerald Bernstein, MD, a past president of the American Diabetes Association and an endocrinologist with Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.

"All of this is preventable if you control blood sugar, but in order to do that you have to know that the disease is present," he said.

Problems have been simmering for decades as Americans have continued to put on weight. Researchers estimate that nearly half of all adults are overweight and nearly one-fifth are obese, or at least 30 pounds overweight. While there is no cure for diabetes, diet and exercise often are enough to control it and prevent complications.

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