It's Medicinal

More Teens Have Type 2 Diabetes; Gila Monsters Are the Answer

Leave me alone. I've got terrible dry mouth!
Leave me alone. I’ve got terrible dry mouth! Photo: Blueag9/Wikimedia

A new report brings the not-great news that a “nationally representative sampling” of young Americans between the ages of 12 and 19 have dramatically higher odds of developing type 2 diabetes than the same age bracket did eight years before that, the Times reports. (You know how kids are these days: They see one celebrity chef on TV with diabetes and suddenly they all have to have it.) Researchers point out the study’s data, published today in the journal Pediatrics, is subject to interpretation; nonetheless, the number of children who tested positive for diabetes in a sampling from 2007-8 was just about three times the amount of positives from a similar sampling in 1999-00. On the unmitigated side of things, the data suggests teenage obesity rates did not increase during the same time period. Over at Motherboard, however, may be the best diabetes and obesity news of the day: Gila monster saliva, it seems, holds the key to successful blood-glucose regulation, and a form of synthetic drool may turn out to be some kind of shady new next-gen wonder drug. [Well/NYT, Motherboard]

More Teens Have Type 2 Diabetes; Gila Monsters Are the Answer