From Your Health Journal…..”I love the Vancouver Sun, as they always have quality articles, so I am always trying to promote their site to my readers. Today’s article review is called, Overweight children at risk of a new ‘beast’ that affects breathing, doctors warn: Obesity hypoventilation syndrome written by Sharon Kirkey. As we know, childhood obesity is on the rise, as many children already show risk factors for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and weak bones. But now, new research states that a new complication – “Obesity hypoventilation syndrome,” or OHS, occurs when fat tissue lodges in the upper airways, affecting a child’s day and nighttime breathing. The result is too little oxygen and too much carbon dioxide in the blood. Major complications can include congestive heart failure, respiratory failure and death. Please visit the Vancouver Sun web site (link provided below) to read the complete article. It is an important one to read, and could help many children.”
From the article…..
Canadian doctors are warning of yet another serious but hidden complication of obesity in children that, if untreated, can be fatal.
“Obesity hypoventilation syndrome,” or OHS, occurs when fat tissue lodges in the upper airways, affecting a child’s day and nighttime breathing. The result is too little oxygen and too much carbon dioxide in the blood.
Major complications can include congestive heart failure, respiratory failure and death.
Yet the syndrome is “almost certainly under-recognized and under-reported” in children, doctors from the University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, University of Alberta, Canadian Paediatric Society and Public Health Agency of Canada write in this month’s issue of the journal, Paediatrics & Child Health.
In Canada, obesity rates among children and adolescents have almost tripled in the past 25 years, the authors note in their report, “Obesity hypoventilation syndrome: A different beast.” Today, “approximately 26 per cent of Canadian children two to 17 years of age are overweight or obese.”
Children with chronic hypoventilation don’t sleep well at night and are excessively drowsy during the day. That fragmented sleep can affect concentration, attention and intellectual functioning, says Dr. Danielle Grenier, a community pediatrician in Gatineau, Que.
Researchers with the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program have launched a two-year study to estimate the frequency of OHS and increase awareness among pediatricians. Doctors are being urged to report any new cases in children and youth under 18.
“Imagine if you have a child that doesn’t sleep well, and not only you don’t sleep well, you don’t oxygenate your brain well,” said Grenier, director of medical affairs for the Canadian Paediatric Society. “Some of these children can have learning difficulties because they’re so sleepy, and because they’re not able to concentrate.”
In severe cases, hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells, thickens, forcing the heart to work harder and increasing the risk of congestive heart failure.
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