From Your Health Journal…..”I found a great website today called Natural News, and I love it. I hope by reading this I bring some traffic to their site as they have some great articles. Today’s article review is from their site called Childhood Obesity Is Gateway To Many Other Chronic Diseases by David Gutierrez. Childhood obesity is a cause I stand behind, as I want every child to have a ‘healthy chance’ in life. So many kids suffer from risk factors for heart disease, cancer, weak joints, type 2 diabetes, and low self esteem. We worry about these young children being unhealthy adults in the future, and the problems it may cause with healthcare. Change is needed. Today’s article points to the fact that researchers found that overweight children are 30 percent more likely than children of normal weight to suffer from three or more medical, mental or developmental problems; obese children are 200 percent more likely. Please visit the Natural News web site (link provided below) to read the complete article. It is an important one.”

From the article…..

Long known to dramatically increase the risk of certain chronic health conditions later in life, childhood obesity also has serious, immediate health consequences, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles and published in the journal Academic Pediatrics.

The researchers found that overweight children are 30 percent more likely than children of normal weight to suffer from three or more medical, mental or developmental problems; obese children are 200 percent more likely.

“The findings should serve as a wake-up call to physicians, parents and teachers, who should be better informed of the risk for other health conditions associated with childhood obesity,” lead author Neal Halfon said.

Researchers have been aware for some time that even as childhood obesity rates have risen over the last 20 years, so have other childhood chronic conditions such as asthma, learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Although prior studies have looked for a connection between these phenomena, they have either had a small sample size or focused on a single condition or part of the country. In the current study, researchers constructed comprehensive health profiles of nearly 43,300 children between the ages of 10 and 17 across the United States. All children were participants in the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health. 15 percent had body mass indexes (BMIs) between the 85th and 95th percentiles (classified as overweight), while 16 percent had BMIs above the 95th percentile (classified as obese).

The researchers compared weight with 21 separate indicators of general health, specific health disorders and psychosocial functioning. The results were adjusted to account for differences in sociodemographic factors.

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