Posted on 06/04/2004 12:25:32 AM PDT by ambrose
Kids Face Metabolic Syndrome Condition
Dr. Mike Rosen
POSTED: 5:30 pm EDT June 3, 2004
PITTSBURGH -- There is new evidence that the growing problem of obesity among our youth is creating a very real health risk that was thought to exist mostly in adults. It’s the kind of thing kids shouldn’t have to think about--heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure. But because so many of our youth are becoming overweight and obese, cardiovascular concerns are now facing even the youngest of patients.
New research in the latest New England Journal of Medicine shows a problem originally identified in adults, called metabolic syndrome, is not just an adult disease. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of factors that signify future risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes: obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, a high triglyceride level, and a low HDL, or good cholesterol.
The study shows that the fatter the child, the more likely he or she is to have metabolic syndrome…while the most recent national data showed just over a quarter of obese adolescents have metabolic syndrome, this new research shows those who were most severely obese have a fifty percent chance of already having it.
Dr. Ram Weiss of Yale University led the research. He says, “Obesity, specifically severe obesity greatly increases your risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes in this age group. Obesity is new in this age group so making predictions to what the risk is compared to adults is quite hard.”
Also of concern, was that blood levels of two factors now identified with cardiovascular disease—c-reactive protein, and interleukin-6…were also elevated in the obese children And the more obese the child, the more likely he or she was to be resistant to insulin--a sign of possible impending diabetes, which itself is a huge risk for cardiovascular disease.
The researchers believe the degree of obesity in children and adolescents has important clinical implications, because the risk of death from all causes among adults with severe obesity is twice that among moderately obese adults.
Dr. Weiss states, “There is a strong possibility of type two diabetes appears earlier and that is what we seeing in this age group now, this is quite new, maybe in the past two decades, maybe cardiovascular disease is going to appear in very young adults in the near future. I believe that as a first step just preventing weight gain in a growing child will reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular related risk quite significantly.”
For more information on obesity, click here.
It's not a "syndrome!"
If you park your a** in front of a TV all day and eat empty calorie junk food you will get fat.
Parents could control this if they just acted like parents.
If you park your a** in front of a TV all day and eat empty calorie junk food you will get fat.
Parents could control this if they just acted like parents.
I agree!!! As a mother of a 3 1/2 year old, I see way too many obese kids at the park these days. One mother even brags that her very cute but chubby 4 year old weighs 60 lbs! Unfortunately, parents don't encourage the kids to exercise and not eat so much. I watched this parent give their kid a 20 oz. bottle of coke with a bag of chips while he sat watching his sibling run and play. Is that a proper snack for a four year old child? NO! It also doesn't help that parents are willing to spend $250-$500 on a motorized car/jeep for the kid to ride on instead of spending the money on bikes or an outdoor playgym so the child is exercizing and having fun. Most of the time, one or both of the parents is overweight and they pass on their bad habits to the kids.
"If you park your a** in front of a TV all day and eat empty calorie junk food you will get fat."
You are correct on that account, but some neighborhoods are just to dangerous for kids to play outside and burn calories. It is a shame that some kids are forced to stay inside while perverts and criminals are outside.
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