Ages & Stages: Obesity & Children's Health

From the National Women's Health Resource Center

As frightening as the overweight epidemic is in adults, it's nothing compared to what's happening with children. Today, one in five children ages 2 to 5 is overweight or obese, as is one in three children ages 6 to 19. Those numbers have doubled for kids 6 to 11 in the past 20 years; tripled for those 12 to 19.

It's the most serious medical disease that's ever hit children," says pediatrician William Sears, MD, an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California-Irvine. That's because kids rarely grow out of their weight problems, with an overweight adolescent having an 80 percent chance of being overweight through adulthood.

Overweight kids also face significant health challenges. About 60 percent have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including high cholesterol, elevated insulin levels and elevated blood pressure; 25 percent have two or more. Today pediatricians treat ever-increasing numbers of children with type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, back pain and other weight-related conditions.

The bottom line: unless American families change the way they eat and live, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts one in three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime.

(c)2006 National Women's Health Resource Center, Inc. (NWHRC) All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from the NWHRC. 1-877-986-9472 (toll-free). On the Web at: www.healthywomen.org.
Article Source: WHNT.com