AS OBESITY HAS risen among America's children, so have related diseases, from high blood pressure to type 2 diabetes. Doctors are also noticing a rise in the number of children with a buildup of fat in the liver that can make it hard for the body to respond to insulin and may contribute to the early onset of type 2.Called fatty liver disease, the phenomenon is often seen in obese adults, and researchers think that 4 out of 5 adults with diabetes have high fat content in their livers. The consequences for children are still not well understood. Sonia Caprio, a researcher at the Yale University School of Medicine's pediatrics department, is looking at what the liver damage means for developing young bodies. "Their livers look like those of heavy drinkers, but obviously they're not," she says.
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