From Your Health Journal…..”One web site I promote as much as possible is called Take Part. I really enjoy their articles, and find them very educational and helpful, which is why I always try to get traffic their way. Today, I found an article they published last month called Obese Kids’ Health Is Much Worse Than We Thought by Lorie A. Parch. It is an excellent article which discusses how health problems do exist in obese children not only in adulthood, but in childhood. Obesity is on the rise in children all over the world, and type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic illness is effecting many children’s lives. They also get bullied, and have very low self esteem. Other research points to other common health conditions associated with obesity include ADHD, learning disability, poor dental health, asthma, allergies, and headaches. Change is needed to help children lead normal, healthy lifestyles. Please visit the Take Part web site (link provided below) to support and read Ms. Parch’s article. It is well written, and many of you may find it very helpful.”
From the article…..
A large new study finds more health problems for very overweight children in childhood—not just later in life.
We all know the number of American kids who are overweight or obese is at a scandalous rate (childhood obesity rates doubled between 1988 and 2006). But most of us might assume that the really bad health consequences of being very overweight will come later, in adulthood, when numbers for the big killers—heart disease, stroke, and diabetes—peak. And while that is true, there’s now new research showing a much bigger effect of excess weight on kids’ health when they are young.
The new study, which appeared in Academic Pediatrics, was led by Neal Halfon, MD, MPH, director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities, in Los Angeles. The research looked at over 43,000 kids ages 10 to 17 around the country and asked about kids’ health issues like asthma, diabetes, and pain, as well as developmental and behavioral issues.
The findings are sobering: “Common health conditions associated with obesity include ADHD, learning disability, poor dental health, asthma, allergies, and headaches,” wrote the study authors. The research, which surveyed parents, also found more ear infections and problems with bones, joints, and muscles in heavier kids.
Overall, say Dr. Halfon and his co-authors, kids who are obese have nearly twice the risk of having three physical, mental, or developmental problems compared to normal-weight children. Overweight kids had a 1.3 times higher risk.
One of the more shocking statistics was the finding that 11 percent of obese kids experienced some sort of restriction on how active they could be—like going to school or playing with other kids, says Halfon. “Obese children are limited in what they can do,” he says. “This is a measure of disability or impairment due to obesity. It’s the same kind of measure that would be used to determine if a child with heart disease or cerebral palsy was impaired in some way.”
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