Obesity among adults and children has reached epidemic status in the U.S. So many
children are overweight that it’s distorting the impression of normality to the point that parents and physicians can no longer tell by looking whether a child is overweight.
In the Houston area, 37 percent of school children are overweight, which is nearly double the national average. Among these, 20 percent are obese.
But weight isn’t the real issue. The concern is the associated health problems: Type 2 diabetes, liver diseases, gallstones and skeletal abnormalities. All of these conditions have ballooned to epidemic proportions.
“About 5 percent of obese children have Type 2 diabetes today. That’s a scary number, even though it may seem low. When I first started as a physician, I never saw a case of Type 2 diabetes in children,” states Dr. William Klish, Gastroenterology and Nutrition Service at Texas Children’s Hospital, professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and a nationally recognized authority on childhood obesity prevention.
The same is true of liver disease in children. An adult disease called NASH nonalcoholic steatohepatitis – is rapidly becoming the number one reason for liver transplants in adults. Studies indicate that 15 percent of the obese children seen at Texas Children’s Hospital have steatohepatitis. The only evidence that they have this disease is a mild elevation in one of their liver enzymes called an ALT. They appear healthy, but liver biopsies reveal these children – some as young as six years old – are well on their way to developing cirrhosis of the liver.
The saddest part of this epidemic is what obesity does to children’s self-esteem. A significant number of overweight children are clinically depressed and require psychiatric or psychological therapy.
The important thing parents need to recognize is that obesity isn’t a cosmetic issue. It truly is a medical issue because these diseases are now being seen in children – diseases that are shortening their life spans by as much as 27 years.
The ultimate solution is social change. People have to become aware of their weight and begin to change the way they live to allowthemselves to maintain a more normal weight. Some of this is happening. People are becoming aware of this epidemic and are starting to go to parks and do activities that are getting them back into the walking and exercise modes.
