Both childhood obesity and climate change are early warning signs.
Childhood obesity warns of heart disease: in teens.
You know that schools have been invaded by fast food franchises, seduced by the sweetness of an easy dollar.
What’s new is that this seduction has a price—and the price is the appearance of adult illnesses in kids.
Any clinician who sees obese teens knows that for 10+ years now, they have been coming in with buffalo humps, extra hair on the face, forearms, lower legs and stomach, and acne—early signs of PCOS in girls.
And coming in with hard to cure infections, eyesight gone fuzzy, no energy at all. Until their blood sugar from type 2 diabetes is corrected, and they start to eat less processed, more nutritious food.
And coming in with heart disease.
Yes, teens.
The risk increases at age 7, and increases dramatically by age 13.
How much risk?
How much should your teen weigh?
To quote from new research on heart disease in obese kids.
“A 13-year-old boy who weighs 11.2 kg (24.6 pounds) more than average which results in a 33% increase in the probability of his having a CHD (cardiac) event before the age of 60.”
The same is true for girls.
Now kids are thought of as at risk only if their BMI are above the 85th percentile on growth charts.
But the new research says risk occurs at a much lower weight.
Smart companies can help employees solve their own problems, if they’re lucky.
But kids? Kids’ self-determination is often up to their schools and their parents. What to do?
USDA runs the school lunch program: that’s 30 million students every day, and 30 million chances to make a difference in kids’ lives that will last a lifetime.
The good news is that overweight kids can get their childhood back–they already too often avoid the activities other kids engage in, and are ashamed.
And if they do, now, while still kids, they will not lose their health to heart disease as young adults.