Mistaking facts about diabetes' relationship to childhood obesity

The writer committed a harmful error in linking juvenile diabetes and childhood obesity.

For the record, juvenile diabetes, also known as Type I, is an auto immune disease. For reasons unknown by scientists, in Type I diabetics the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas are attacked by the body's own immune system.

The diabetes referred to in the article is Type II diabetes, and although it is increasingly seen in younger people, it has not changed its name to the more serious and life-threatening version of the disease.

Your article is hurtful to those people who suffer from Type I and may frustrate efforts to raise funds to find a cure. The writer and his editors could learn more about this disease by going to jdrf.org.

Patrick Farrell
Andover