More U.S. Kids Overweight and At
Risk for Heart Disease, Diabetes
January 2, 2005
By Lisa Olen
An increasing number of America's children and teenagers
are overweight, obese, and at risk for heart disease
and diabetes, according to worrisome statistics released
by the American Heart Association (AHA).
Nearly 4 million children ages 6–11 and 5.3 million
adolescents ages 12–19 were overweight or obese
in 2002, the most recent year for which data are available.
In addition, more children are overweight or obese at
very young ages.
More than 10 percent of preschool children between
the ages of two and five were overweight in 2002 --
up from 7 percent in 1994, according to the American
Heart Association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics
– 2005 Update released Friday.
Since 1991, the prevalence of obesity among American
adults has increased 75 percent.
Risk Factors Present Early in Life
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) -- still the nation’s
No. 1 killer -- claimed 927,448 American lives in 2002,
reports the AHA. The update includes a new section on
the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in adolescents that indicates
that rates of controllable risk factors for cardiovascular
diseases are increasing among America’s young
people.
Cardiovascular diseases include high blood pressure,
coronary heart disease (heart attack and angina), congestive
heart failure, stroke and congenital heart defects,
among others. The update includes recently published
data from the 1999–2002 National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey (NHANES) showing that about 65 million
Americans had high blood pressure in 2002, which represents
a 30 percent increase over the previous survey from
1988–94.
“While heart attacks and stroke remain the leading
causes of death in men and women, we see in the 2005
Update that many risk factors for these conditions are
common, preventable and occur well before the onset
of disease,” said Christopher O’Donnell,
M.D., associate director of the National Heart, Lung
and Blood Institute’s Framingham Heart Study,
and chair of the American Heart Association’s
statistics committee.
“These risk factors, including abnormal blood
lipids and high blood pressure, often present early
in life even before middle age, when preventative measures
might make a large difference,” Dr. O’Donnell
says.
Metabolic Syndrome in Adolescents
About 1 million 12–19-year-olds in the United
States (or 4.2 percent overall) have MetS. Many controllable
risk factors for heart disease are encompassed in the
metabolic syndrome: abnormal blood lipids, high glucose
(blood sugar), high blood pressure and overweight/obesity.
MetS during adolescence was defined in the 1988-1994
NHANES data as three or more of these abnormalities:
Blood triglyceride level of 110 milligrams per deciliter
(mg/dL) or higher.
High-density lipoprotein (HDL, the “good”
cholesterol) levels of 40 mg/dL or lower.
Elevated fasting glucose of 110 mg/dL or higher.
Blood pressure above the 90th percentile for age, sex
and height.
Waist circumference at or above the 90th percentile
for age and sex.
The most common risk factor found in adolescents with
MetS is being overweight. Not all overweight adolescents
will have MetS, which was present in just under 30 percent
of overweight adolescents. However, of those with MetS,
nearly two-thirds were overweight.
Overweight in this age group means that body mass index
(BMI), a measure of body fatness, was at or above the
95th percentile according to the Centers for Disease
Control growth charts for children of similar age and
sex.
Epidemic Increases
“Childhood risk factors carry over into adulthood,
and may eventually translate into heart disease and
other medical problems, such as diabetes. Obesity is
a major risk factor for heart disease that should be
controlled early in life,” said Robert H. Eckel,
M.D., an endocrinologist at the University of Colorado
Health Science Center, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism
and Diabetes, and president-elect of the American Heart
Association.
“Intervention is urgently needed for high-risk
people to reverse the alarming and epidemic increases
in diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome, particularly
in young people,” Dr. O’Donnell warned.
The Fast-Food Factor
In related news, researchers have shown a correlation
between fast food, weight gain, and insulin resistance
in what appears to be the first long-term study on this
subject.
The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults
(CARDIA) study by Mark Pereira, Ph.D., assistant professor
in epidemiology, University of Minnesota School of Public
Health, and David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., director of the
Obesity Program at Children's Hospital Boston, reported
that fast food increases the risk of obesity and type
2 diabetes.
Participants who consumed fast food two or more times
a week gained approximately 10 more pounds and had twice
as great increase in insulin resistance in the 15-year
period than participants who consumed fast food less
than once per week.
Dieting May Exacerbate the Problem
Despite the alarming trend, Americans should not rush
to put their children -- or themselves -- on the latest
reducing diet, say experts. A common-sense approach
to eating and physical activity is advised.
“Americans are obsessed with dieting and food.”
says University of Michigan Health System cardiovascular
nutritionist Marilyn Migliore, M.S., R.D., C.S.W., a
cardiovascular nutritionist/social worker. The South
Beach Diet has consistently ranked as one of the top
five advice books on the New York Times best seller
list, she notes. The irony is that 64 percent of adults
in the United States remain either overweight or obese
-- the highest incidence on the planet.
“The food industry has spent $30 billion in advertising.
It’s overwhelming in amount, powerful in presentation
and pernicious in outcome. It has conditioned us to
become food eating machines,” says Migliore, author
of The Hunger Within.
The diet industry has also done its part to get Americans
on the dieting bandwagon: from Atkins to South Beach;
‘low carb’ to ‘no carb;’ Anna
Nicole Smith – before and after; and those ‘lose
10 pounds in 10 days’ gimmicks. These “quick-fix”
approaches amount to putting a band-aid on the symptoms
but ultimately exacerbating the problem, says Migliore.
Healthier Choices
“We can shift away from that mindset by, rather
than looking at food in terms of what you should and
should not be eating, just make the decisions based
on what the particular food is going to provide you,”
Migliore explains. “Learning to use the tools
we have available to us, such as reading nutrition labels;
and understanding how our internal and external environment
can affect why, how much and when we eat, can ensure
that we manipulate our own environments and keep it
from manipulating us.”
Some fast-food restaurants are responding to a call
for healthier choices.
"Appropriate action would be to reduce portions
to normal sizes, and to sell burgers of lean meat, whole-grain
bread or buns, fat-reduced mayonnaise, more vegetables,
lower-fat fried potatoes, and reduced-sugar soft drinks,"
says Arne Astrup of RVA University, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Source:http://health.dailynewscentral.net
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