A new study has shown some alarming news about the number of teens who have prediabetes, diabetes and other heart disease risk factors. That study, published in the journal, Pediatrics, has shown a shocking increase in the number of diabetic young adults as well as those who are at risk for developing that chronic condition.

The study, which looked at the health factors of more than three thousand kids who had participated in the National Health, Nutrition and Exercise Survey revealed that while some numbers have either stabilized or even dropped, the numbers for diabetes are still increasing. The kids in the study were all ages twelve to nineteen.

According to the results of this study the number of overweight or obese kids in that age group did not change from the beginning in 1999 to the end in 2008, remaining stable at 34%. Both prehypertension, a condition which increases the risk of high blood pressure as well as high blood pressure remained stable at just under fifteen percent for the same time period. Numbers for high cholesterol increased slightly to just over twenty percent. But, the numbers for diabetes increased nearly three times- jumping from nine percent to twenty three percent during the course of the study.

Researchers were shocked to find that the numbers for obesity were remaining stable while the numbers for diabetes were still climbing because in adults, the numbers are usually rising in tandem. Obesity increases the risk of diabetes in a number of ways including by impairing the way that glucose is used in the body. For example, the excess weight might increase glucose tolerance and insulin resistance.

Even though the number of overweight and obese teens has stabilized, diabetes remains a critical risk factor for problems that include cardiovascular disease.That study also found that more than half of all of these teens had at least one of the risk factors for heart disease, most commonly the diabetes, however, many of them had at least one additional risk factor as well.

A second, unrelated test showed that obese teens may have some heart related damage even if they do not show any signs of cardiovascular disease. That study, which looked at just under one hundred teens that were either obese, overweight or normal weight found the heavier youth had thickened heart walls and impaired function of that organ even though none had reported having any symptoms beforehand. That study is being presented at a Heart Failure Congress meeting in Serbia.