Metabolic Disease in Children and Adolescents

Several metabolic conditions first show themselves during exercise, because muscular energy demand exposes a defect in the pathway that supplies it.

This page covers the 2 groups a sport and exercise medicine (SEM) clinician meets most often in young athletes:

• •Diabetes, where the challenge is managing glucose around training and competition
• •The inherited metabolic myopathies, where a child or adolescent has exercise intolerance, cramps or recurrent dark urine after exertion and is repeatedly told they are simply unfit or dehydrated

Obesity-related metabolic disease, endocrine disorders, relative energy deficiency in sport and disordered eating are covered elsewhere on StudySEM. The focus here is recognition from the pattern and timing of symptoms, and keeping young athletes participating safely.