Ground-breaking Research Reveals Government Must Focus on Healthy Children's Diets to Prevent Diabetes

Ground-breaking Research Reveals Government Must Focus on Healthy Children's Diets to Prevent Diabetes PR Newswire PLYMOUTH, England, June 14, 2012 PLYMOUTH, England, June 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- thJune 15 2012 represents a ground-breaking date in the history of diabetes research. After twelve years the EarlyBird project has made significant advances in understanding what triggers diabetes and cardio-vascular disease and the means to determine how advanced these conditions are. The Earlybird research has worryingly shown just how early in life the underlying symptoms of diabetes start, and how focus must move to early prevention through diet not simply physical activity, despite the current focus of government policy. The EarlyBirds, a randomly selected group of 300 healthy children, have undergone an intensive series of measurements and tests from the age of five to seventeen. Since 2000, the Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, Terence Wilkin has been leading the 'EarlyBird study' to find which factors in childhood cause diabetes in later life. The project aim is to help parents, teachers and decision makers in government to understand the preventable factors in childhood that are responsible for the current epidemics of diabetes and heart disease. This radical medical research will provide evidence to help academics identify the causes of diabetes.