Adult-onset diabetes in children rising due to obesity
To reduce the occurrence of adult-onset diabetes, Dr. Dan Cooper, professor of pediatrics and director of the UCI General Clinical Research Center, is leading an NIH-sponsored team of doctors, teachers and exercise specialists who are working with local schools to increase physical activity and improve school cafeteria offerings for middle-school students. The number of obese children in the United States has tripled in the last 20 years, and adult-onset — or Type 2 — diabetes is also on the rise. Type 2 diabetes, which used to be rare in children, is linked closely to obesity, a sedentary lifestyle and a family history of the disease.  
Contact: Kim Pine, 714-456-7759, kpine@uci.edu

Experienced surgeons reduce complications from obesity surgery
Dr. Ninh T. Nguyen, chief of gastrointestinal surgery at UCI Medical Center, recently led a study that found a well-trained surgeon can reduce complications from minimally invasive surgery, a technique that has become a popular way to treat morbid obesity. The study — the first to evaluate how well patients fare from the surgery — calls for more training of surgeons in the use of laparoscopy in surgery for the morbidly obese, as the minimally invasive techniques become more common. It also shows that experience in this complex procedure translates to better clinical outcomes. Contact: Kim Pine, 714-456-7759, kpine@uci.edu