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Obesity -
Obesity 2008
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Written by Frank Mangano
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Monday, 17 November 2008 01:54 |
Obese Kids Among the Very Old at Heart, Organs
Do you remember the movie “Jack”? Robin Williams played the title role. If it doesn’t ring a bell, Williams played the role of Jack Powell, a 10-year-old boy housed in a fortysomething’s body due to a mysterious condition that caused him to age four times faster than normal.
While they condition may sound outlandish, it wasn’t made up for Hollywood. It’s called Werner’s Syndrome, and while it affects a very small percentage of kids today (about 1 in every 200,000), its symptoms are similar to what happens to the organs of obese kids – a condition, sadly, affecting a large percentage of kids today (between 16 and 33 percent of children are obese, according to some estimates).
Using ultrasound technology, researchers from the University of Missouri at their Kansas City School of Medicine found obese kids’ organs were reminiscent to those of a 45-year-old, particularly in the neck region (the carotid artery).
While all organs are important, the carotid artery is an especially important one because it’s the lifeblood of the brain, supplying it with blood and oxygen. If the arteries are in an aged condition early in life – and let’s face it, even the healthiest 45-year-old man does not have the kind of vitality a 10-year-old boy has – that greatly increases the risk for heart attack or stroke early in life. So before we even get to the specifics of the study, that’s what the findings of this study mean.
As for the study itself, researchers analyzed the carotid artery size of 34 boys and 36 girls, again, using ultrasound technology. Many of these boys and girls were labeled “at risk,” as the thickness of the arterial walls was significant. A general thickness in arterial walls indicates plaque build-up along the inner lining, preventing free-flowing blood and oxygen to the brain.
When researchers then analyzed the “at-risk” children’s other stats, like their cholesterol levels and their body mass index, they found some troublesome trends:
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On average, their cholesterol levels were 223.4 mg/dl, almost 54 points higher than what’s considered too high for their age group, according to American Heart Association (AHA)
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The body mass index and blood pressure rates were also indicative of aging organs, meaning that the higher their body mass index and blood pressure, the more likely they were to have a high vascular age (i.e. the more technical term for aging organs).
All the stops needed to be pulled when it comes to preventing childhood obesity. It is extremely hazardous to their health and every step should be taken to combat it. And if an aging carotid artery isn’t considered important enough, how about the most important organ of all: the heart.
In an entirely unrelated study, researchers from the American Heart Association found that whether a child was obese or not “significantly predicted” the size of hearts (if obese, they were bigger) the thickness of vessel walls leading to the heart (if obese, they were thicker) and how well the heart’s ventricles functioned (if obese, poorly, compared to children with healthy BMIs).
Obesity functions very much like a struggling economy: there’s a domino effect. No one thing can functions in isolation. One thing affects another, which affects another, which affects another. Wall Street’s demise leads to a disfunctioning Main Street, rendering an economic slowdown. An aging heart and aging organs lead to a disfunctioning body, rendering a physical slowdown.
While your child will likely always be young at heart in spirit, make sure to keep him or her young at heart physically for as long as possible by taking childhood obesity seriously.
It’s the best step a parent can take to help him or her avoid a physical recession.
 
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