Childhood Obesity – Dooming Kids For the Rest of Their Lives
Posted by admin on September 22, 2011 under Uncategorized | 
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It wasn’t all that long ago that obesity and all of its related problems were solely the problems of grown-ups. In the United States things have gotten worse over the last few decades. In addition to having more overweight adults than ever, kids and teens are developing this condition earlier and earlier in life. For kids, the most obvious influences are going to be their parents but education and awareness are important too. The parents, though, are the ones who are responsible for offering the most guidance and being the most positive role models properly. What the obese child is facing are immediate threats to physical health and mental well-being. If you go beyond that you’ll be able to see that there are a lot of dangerous health risks that can and most likely will surface later on. This means that kids are dealt a terrible hand that is nearly impossible to overcome.
An obese kid is on a terrible path toward impossible health problems. One, for example, is fatty liver disease which is perhaps the number one type of disease that affects the liver. It wasn’t that long ago that most liver problems were blamed on alcoholism or sclerosis of the liver. Today, however, we know that fatty livery disease is caused by long term obesity. What will often compound the overall issue with the liver is the fact that the obese person’s metabolism is severely dysfunctional. The liver helps by getting rid of anything that is not good for the body. This, then, adds extra pressure to the other systems of children and teenagers who suffer from obesity. Research has been conducted everywhere that confirms that obstructive sleep apnea is a lot more widespread in children and teens who are obese. This particular condition is especially dangerous because it causes the child’s
airway to become blocked while he or she is sleeping. Overweight and obese kids will tend to snore, as well, however that can even be deceiving according to researchers. The reason for the snoring (some of the time anyway) is OSA or Obstructive Sleep Apnea. One possible way to solve the problem is to undergo an adenotonsillectomy which is thought to treat this particular condition when it arises in obese kids and obese teens.
Science is still trying to puzzle out whether or not early onset obesity has a direct relationship with early onset puberty. Obviously, though, there is also some common sense in looking at what we already know. For example, it is widely known that kids who are overweight or obese grow faster and enter puberty earlier. But it is a time in which clear decisions need to be made as to what causes what. Obviously this is not a serious threat to a child’s health or super impacting of other obesity related problems but there are definitely some implications that will go along with the abnormally early onset of puberty. Obese kids and young adults have often been (accurately) described as “the walking wounded.” This applies because of the way that obesity affects the mind and the body.