Type 2 diabetes harder to control in kids

(CBS News) A new medical study says type 2 diabetes is especially dangerous for children, because it's harder to control than in adults.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also finds because kids develop type 2 diabetes sooner, there's also an increased risk for complications such as heart attack and stroke.

The study followed 699 children, ages 10 to 17, for a four-year period and concluded that the medication typically used to treat the disease in adults wasn't as effective over time. About half of the patients needed to add insulin shots to their regime to control blood sugar levels. The study also suggests that a healthy lifestyle holds little bearing on the effectiveness of treatment.

Type 2 diabetes epidemic among U.S. kids worsens

Dr. Mark Hyman, author of "The Blood Sugar Solution: The Ultra Healthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease and Feeling Great Now!" says type 2 diabetes is a a social problem.

"Type 2 diabetes is rampant in children now," he said Monday on "CBS This Morning." "We have two million kids who on morbidly obese. Most undiagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes and the study showed that drugs don't work, that we have to put kids on insulin, which is a disaster. We need a different solution. This is really a social problem. We need a social cure. We're not going to solve this in the doctor's office. We have to solve this in the communities where people live. We have to change things like access to sodas and school access to good foods."

Hyman noted the the average child in the U.S. has 34 teaspoons of sugar a day. He said, "The food industry have hijacked our brain chemistry, our taste buds, our homes, our kitchens, our schools, and we need to take them back. We need to do things like have soda taxes, change food marketing practices to kids because this is not a problem solved in the doctor's office."

For more with Hyman on the results of the study, watch his full analysis in the video above.