Randy's Health Columns

Childhood Obesity
By Randy Coleman Attention parents! Many of you are loving your children to death. Because you don’t want to see them unhappy in the short-term, you allow them to indulge their cravings for greasy fast food, processed junk food and high-calorie sweets and enable them to sit in front of the television, computer or video games for hours. These treats are seemingly harmless, but they’re not. Today, one in four children under the age of 10 is overweight or obese. As a parent or a caregiver that statistic should scare you to death. This combination of extra body weight and limited exercise is sentencing our children to a lifetime of medical problems and diminishing their capacity to live full, satisfying productive lives. If you think I’m overstating the risk, consider this example: diabetes. Diabetes, particularly Type II, has clearly been linked with obesity. People are diagnosed with Type II Diabetes because their bodies do not produce enough insulin, which is necessary for the body to utilize glucose, or their cells “ignore” the insulin. Historically, children were diagnosed with Type I Diabetes, also called Juvenile Diabetes, because their bodies simply did not produce insulin. In 1990, only 4 percent of children with diabetes suffered from Type II, but today that number has increased to more than 20 percent. Because diabetes interferes with the way that our bodies utilize energy, its effects are devastating over time. Complications include: heart disease (cardiovascular disease), blindness (retinopathy), nerve damage (neuropathy), and kidney damage (nephropathy). If an individual begins to battle diabetes when they are 65, they will begin showing the disease’s wear and tear when they are in their late 70s or early 80s. If a child is diagnosed with diabetes when he is 12, his body will begin to show the ravages when he is in his late 20s. Instead of enjoying the prime of his life, he will be struggling to overcome debilitating illness. Instead of succeeding in a career, he might be medically disabled. Instead of experiencing the sweet challenges of parenthood, he might be suffering through amputations, blindness or dialysis. The increasing prevalence of Type II Diabetes is terrifying enough, but children today are also experiencing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, heart disease, joint problems, and many more diseases that previously were just the domain of adults. Who is to blame for this obesity epidemic? If you listen to the media, there are plenty of scapegoats…schools, television advertisers, and even genetics and ethnicity. And arguably all of these have some culpability, but none are solely responsible for the looming health crisis. Playing the blame game just diverts attention from the real question, which is: “Who is responsible for stopping this health-related train wreck before our future runs off the tracks?” Unfortunately, this train wreck won’t be stopped by policy discussions. It will be prevented by action at the family level. As a parent, you are going to have to step up and help your children focus on a healthy future built on good decisions and smart habits, even if it makes them unhappy in the short-term. Personally, I would be willing to trade some grumbling for the promise of a fulfilling life. Fortunately, the rules for family health are the same as for personal health. In a nutshell, the whole family has to eat less and move more. And as a parent, you have to lead the way. Even if your kids are rolling their eyes and pretending that you don’t exist, they’re watching your every move. You are their primary role model, so if you start living healthy, they’ll soon follow suit – and you’ll all be moving toward a brighter future.