LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

childhood obesity statistics

Childhood Obesity Stats: Run if the Pediatrician Gives This

by

 

childhood obesity statistics antibitotics
Dmitry Naumov / Dollar Photo Club

While the incidence of childhood obesity seems to have leveled off, it remains one of the biggest concerns for the future health of our population.

Every pediatric journal I read continues to highlight the concern and the aspects that are contributing to the increasing waistlines of our children.  Almost immediately the need to have our children be more active was hoisted to the top of the interventions to be promoted.  From Michelle Obama decrees, statewide Healthy Children initiatives and McDonald’s commercials, the push has been towards getting our kids moving more.

If only it was  simple.

When that didn’t seem to be doing the trick, the focus has started to (rightfully so) shift to cutting back on calories and avoiding sugary snacks and drinks.  And pediatricians have been leading the charge for getting our kids healthier.

But what if pediatricians are playing a major role in childhood obesity??

Regular readers of this blog will know where this is going.  It is now crystal clear that the bacteria in our collective guts play a massive role in all aspects of our health, with obesity and autoimmune conditions topping the list.

I frequently say that mainstream medicine remains decades behind the medical research, but in few instances is this problem as glaring as the intertwined issue of gut bacteria, probiotics and antibiotics.  It has only been recently that I have been reading in authors in medical journals discussing the overuse of antibiotics on the destruction of the normal bacteria in the gut.

The problem with antibiotic overuse has always been highlighted as antibiotic resistance.  But while this IS a concern, it is dwarfed by the fact that antibiotics decimate the diversity of the bacteria in the gut.  In this manner, antibiotics may greatly increase the risk of obesity, devastating autoimmune conditions and psychological disorders.

While we don’t know everything yet (and probably never will) about how the hundreds of different bacterial species in your gut interact with your health, current research is pointing to diversity as being very important.  With this in mind, in this particular study, researchers looked at the links between antibiotic use in a group of 6114 boys and 5948 girls and the later development of obesity.

The results are a little scary:

  • Children who were exposed to antibiotics in the first 2 years of life were, on average, heavier than kids who did not get antibiotics.
  • The effect was strongest in those exposed in the first 6 months to macrolides (broad spectrum antibiotics–think Azithromycin, Chlarithromycin and Erythromycin).  Specifically, boys were 72% more likely to be heavier and give 77% more likely to be heavier than the un-antibioticized children.
  • In addition, those children who had more than one exposure to antibiotics were 80% more likely (boys) and 87% more likely (girls) to be overweight.

These are significant numbers.  And it wouldn’t be so scary if antibiotics were used for life-threatening diseases instead of being used in conditions like low grade fevers, coughs and ear infections.  It is rare for a child to escape the prescription pad in his or her first two years of life.

So, the next time your child’s pediatrician wants to write a prescription for an antibiotic, first find out if your pediatrician thinks that antibiotics could contribute to obesity in children.  If your doctor gives you a strange look, it is absolutely time to find one that has cracked a medical journal in the past decade.

Surprising Fact that May Contribute to Childhood Obesity Statistics

by

childhood obesity statistics and sleep
Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/

There has been very little dent in the childhood obesity statistics over the past decade or so. Sure, there’s been much attention focused on the problem, but very little real answers.

The least painful answer is for kids to get out and move.  Or at least this recommendation is the one that is not going to cost any big businesses money and may even generate additional income.  You will never see a recommendation to avoid dairy or refined carbohydrates because these recommendations would be very, very painful to certain business that “support” the efforts to fight childhood obesity.  The sad thing is that, while exercise is important, it’s low on the totem pole of important changes to make.

While the dietary changes are the most powerful tools we have for fighting off obesity, there are other more sneaky things that contribute.  Take family meals, for instance.  It is well documented that family meals increase the quality of the foods eaten and lower the risk of obesity.  And these families meals should NOT involve television viewing.  That’s a pretty darn easy recommendation, but may require some pretty serious changes in the priorities of parents.

This particular study addresses another one of those little known factors when it comes to obesity rates, whether in children or adults.

Sleep.  Or rather, lack of it.

Yup.  Lack of sleep has been consistently shown to increase obesity rates.  And why shouldn’t it?  It’s a stress on the body and stress contributes to weight gain.  All too often, we don’t stress the importance of getting a solid nights’ sleep, especially in our teenage high school students.

In the study, researchers looked at the sleeping habits of  250 healthy high school students from public school (average age 15.7 years with 57% black and 54% female).  These kids were from low to middle class families.  The amount of sleep was measured both from a diary and from actigraphy (a small device attached to the wrist or arm to monitor the amount of sleep based on body movements).  Here’s what they found:

  • The amount of sleep during the week in the group was clearly too low (6.8 hours based on diary and 6.0 based on actigraphy).
  • On the weekend, the amount of sleep was a little higher at  8.7 based on the diary and 7.4 based on actigraphy.
  • Black participants and male participants slept less and had more fragmented sleep.
  • Female participants reported poorer quality of sleep in their daily diaries and more daytime sleepiness.

Given that the recommendations for sleep in this age group is 8 to 9 hours, this is a big problem.  Even when they think they can “catch up” on sleep over the weekend (you can’t) the actual sleep measured by actigraphy is still too low.

As parents, it is our job to set the stage for the importance of sleep for long-term health.  Those habits are picked up early and can contribute to a lifetime of poor health.  How much sleep did YOUR teenager get last night?

 

Should You Tell Your Child He or She is Overweight?

by

Despite research that you’re likely to delude yourself about your child’s weight, you admit there is a problem.  So what do you do now?

Coming right out and telling your child he or she is too heavy inherently just sounds like a bad idea.  Having the person that a child trusts the most in his or her world telling them that he or she has a weight problem is going to create deep seated problems.

This particular study lends credence to this fear.  Researchers looked at a large group of child / parent sets and how the communication about weight issues was discussed.  Here’s what they found:

  • Mothers and fathers who engaged in weight-related conversations had adolescents who were more likely to diet, use unhealthy weight-control behaviors, and engage in binge eating.
  • Overweight or obese adolescents whose mothers engaged in conversations that were focused only on healthful eating behaviors were less likely to diet and use unhealthy weight-control behaviors.
  • When both parents engaged in healthful eating conversations, the behaviors were further improved.

I have written in the past about healthier methods of engaging your children in healthy behaviors (in particular, you can read about overt versus covert parenting styles in a previous blog article by clicking here).  In addition, it is very clear that parental behaviors guide children’s behaviors and health habits.

Much of this depends on the age.  With Keegan, I had always made eating healthy a game, but this was made easier because his choices have always been within the subset of foods that I eat.  The discussion on healthy versus unhealthy eating and weight did not enter into the picture because most of his options were healthy.

When I have had discussions with patients of overweight children, the discussion centers on healthy behaviors and not weight.  Usually weight is not an issue; gaining MORE weight is the issue.  If an overweight 8 year old’s lifestyle improves, he or she will get taller for some time, but not likely put on additional weight.  They will grow into their weight.

With a teenager, this is less likely to happen as they are closer to their full grown height.  For this age, the discussion HAS to center around making the right choices for good health, NOT for weight reasons.

If your child begins to make the right decisions for health reasons, his or her long term healthy weight behaviors are going to be better.

Childhood Obesity Statistics: Children Should Eat More of This

by

childhood obesity statistics peanut
P2B peanut butter on Amazon

Our kids are growing up AND out, but you don’t need me to tell you this.  Despite the awareness, nothing seems to be changing, despite some easy answers like this one.

I have always been a strong advocate of nuts (the raw ones with no added oils to ruin the health benefits) and the research strongly supports eating them.  All types.  But what about peanut butter?  Technically, it’s a legume and doesn’t fall into the same category as nuts.

However, the plant-based protein content, the fiber and the type of fats in peanuts also work in their favor as they do nuts.  For me, one of my favorite breakfasts is high fiber whole grain bread with real peanut butter (more on this in a minute) with bananas sliced on top.

I recommend peanut butter frequently to patients, but always caution them on “real” versus “fake” peanut butter.  Peanut oil is a liquid at room temperature and also oxidizes relatively quickly when exposed to oxygen so it is not stable in the cabinet once opened.

To get around this, manufacturers hydrogenate peanut oil, changing the characteristics of the oil into something that leads to obesity, diabetes and cancer.  For this reason, I steer patients away from brands like Jif and Skippy because they are absolutely not good for your health.

I have always advocated the brands that require mixing of the oil and refrigeration.  I remain leery of other brands that use palm oil to keep the jar emulsified.  Brands like Naturally More and MaraNantha are good brands to stick with.  Tip: leave the peanut butter upside down in the cabinet until it is ready to be opened, then flip it over, mixing the oil all the way to the bottom and refrigerating the jar; this should keep the consistency even throughout its use.

Only recently did I discover powered peanut butter.  I bought it with no actual delusions of finding it enjoyable, but was pleasantly surprised to find it quite enjoyable.  I now buy P2B peanut butter off of Amazon (which can be found by clicking here).  The advantage?  Regular peanut butter has around 180 calories per 2 tablespoons.  The powered variety?  A mere 45 per same serving size.

Back to this particular study.  Researchers looked at a group of 262 sixth grade Mexican-American students and evaluated the relationships between body weight, blood lipids and peanut butter intake.  Here’s what they found:

  • Children who were peanut eaters were less likely to be overweight or obese.
  • Peanut consumers had higher intakes of several vitamins and micronutrients (i.e., magnesium, vitamin E).
  • Peanut consuming children also had lower LDL and total cholesterol levels.

This is all pretty good news, especially given how acceptable peanut and peanut butter eating is to children.  Of course, the protective effect may not be just from the peanuts and peanut butter, but from the fact that peanut butter is typically a breakfast food.  That would mean that these 6th grade children are more likely to be eating breakfast, which has been shown to be beneficial for ideal body weight in children.

Further, this study did not look at the intakes of “real” versus “fake” peanut butter.  It is highly likely that, given the opposite health ends of the spectrum between the two, real peanut butter would be far more protective than what researchers saw in this study.  Not a bad thing at all.

 

Childhood Obesity Statistics: It’s the Diet, Stupid…

by

This is not the first time I’ve pointed out the problems in society when it comes to health.  Even First Lady Obama is promoting physical activity like it’s “the” answer to childhood obesity.

Well, guess what?  The problem isn’t the exercise.  I’m not saying it’s ok for your child to sit in front of an Xbox 360 for 4 hours a day.  They should, in general, be active.  When we were kids (maybe 10 years ago, if my math is correct…) we didn’t do “exercise.”  We rode our bikes everywhere, we ran around the neighborhood and we played sports.  But we didn’t exercise just to exercise.  It was just a part of what we did.

This should be the end discussion on the contribution of exercise to our rising childhood obesity statistics.  But it isn’t.  It becomes the pivotal discussion point on combatting childhood obesity.

Previous blog articles that have focused on how little exercise promotion changes behaviors in children can be read by clicking here.

This particular study looks at the effects of physical activity recommendations from a primary care provider in 182 overweight/obese 5- to 10-year-olds after a 3 year period.  They used accelerometry to study activity (think of a pedometer).  Here’s what they found:

  • Beginning and 3-year BMI scores did not change.
  • Beginning activity scores were 334 cpm (counts / minute) and 3-year were 284.
  • For those who had higher activity levels at 3 years, BMI scores dropped by a relatively small amount only.
  • Looking at the bright side, those with higher activity levels were more likely to not gain weight (versus moving to a higher BMI category).

Overall, the results were pretty disappointing.

Rather than being discouraged, however, this should wake us all up to the fact that diet is absolutely critical in making sure our children stay at his or her optimal weight.  No one gets hurt financially when we tell everyone to move more.  Actually, companies like Nike, Reebok and Spaulding probably come out way ahead.

But telling kids to avoid soda (diet and regular) and refined carbohydrates??  THAT is going to cost the majore confectionary companies like Nabisco and Kraft millions of dollars.

As the parent, it is up to you to set the stage for your child’s health.  No excuses like little Johnny is a poor eater.  If he is, it’s because you have let him become a poor eater.

You can view my general recommendations by clicking here.

Childhood Obesity Statistics: Is Your Child 7-11 Years Old?

by

Childhood obesity statistics remain a concern even at the Presidential level. We know the answers, but we have to be willing to make the needed changes to our lives.

I have made it very clear where I stand on the childhood obesity epidemic.  The vast majority of the fault lies not with the schools, not with the TV advertisers and not even with McDonald’s.  Rather, it lies squarely in the laps of the parents.  Let me relay a very sad story to illustrate the point.

My son, Keegan, is a 7 year old first grader.  A few weeks ago, before I packed his lunch for the next day, we had an updated discussion about what I was putting into his lunch.  We do this from time to time to make sure he’s eating enough and that he likes what I’m giving him.  I asked him if he would eat some purple cauliflower if I put a few small pieces in his lunch.  He noted concern that the other kids would make fun of him because he would be the only kid at the table eating cauliflower.  With some negotiations he agreed to eat the cauliflower I put in his lunch (I pointed out that none of the other kids would have a square of dark chocolate in his or her lunch either, so he conceded my win).

A few days later I asked him if he ate the cauliflower.  He said that he did, but he held it under the table so the other kids wouldn’t see him eating it.  My heart broke.  The idea that he should be ashamed to eat cauliflower in front of his friends both hurt me and angered me.  What does this say about our collective child health rearing skills that a solitary child eating cauliflower should feel the need to eat this food out of sight?  Shouldn’t the kids eating Doritos for lunch be the ones hiding in the corner in shame because, at some level, that child’s parents are completely oblivious about how much these foods destroy the future health of that child?

Do you think I’m being overly dramatic?  If so, it’s because you haven’t yet read this particular article.

There has always been concern with rapid weight gain in a child leading to the rise in childhood obesity statistics.  This concern extends to the weight gain in the womb due to gestational diabetes, as an infant when the child is on formula instead of breastmilk, as a toddler as they explore new foods or beyond.  In this study, researchers looked broke weight gain into age categories to determine at what ages the rapid growth was the most associated with future health challenges (in this case, high blood pressure).

The age groups were broken down as follows: 3 to 9 months, 9 to 36 months, 3 to 7 years, and 7 to 11 years.  The children’s blood pressure at age 11 was then determined.  Here’s what they found:

  1. Faster childhood linear growth between 7 and 11 years of age (getting taller) in girls led to a 27% higher risk of higher blood pressures.
  2. In boys, this risk was over double the risk – 211%.
  3. At age 11, both boys and girls with the highest BMI had 272% higher risk of having higher blood pressure (Tweet this).

Based on this study, the time bomb of health is ticking at my son’s school.  The fact that Keegan’s friends would make fun of him for eating cauliflower (I have heard him say the same of hummus) speaks volumes as to the foods these kids are exposed to at home.

In your child’s lunchroom, would your child be in Keegan’s shoes, or would your child sneer at the idea of eating foods like cauliflower or hummus?

Childhood Obesity Statistics: Parental Stress Matters

by

As parents, we all try to do our best to raise our children with the best of morales and the most ideal of health.  No parent looks at their child and thinks, “I love little junior, but I’m going to feed him McDonalds three times per week so he can grow obese and develop heart disease and diabetes.”  Rather, the effects on our kids are more subtle. 

Read the entire article here.

Childhood Obesity Statistics: Damage to This in Overweight Kids

by

I’ve covered many dangers associated with the rising childhood obesity statistics in this country, but damage to this vital organ caught me a little by surprise.

Ok.  You know that your child is overweight.  Or, maybe you don’t because statistically, parents have a tendency to downplay their child’s body weight issues.

Either way, you know it’s not a good thing, but they’ll outgrow it.  And then everything will be fine once he or she gets older.  Maybe not.  Maybe not in a BIG way.

This particular article took an interesting long term look at what happened to 17 year old children who were overweight (85th to 95th percentiles of BMI) or obese (≥95th percentile of BMI) getting his or her physical for the Israeli military.  This was an interesting chance to observe these kids because the physical examination to determine fitness level for entry into the military in mandatory.  Among other things, urinalysis and body weight was determined.

With the urinalysis being done, it was easy to determine if these children had any pre-existing kidney problems and were ruled out for this study.  In other words, the kidney function of these kids was in good shape with no indication of problems.

Fast forward 25 years and that is not at all the case.

Before we get into the results, let’s review what end stage renal disease (ESRD) really means.  This has typically been the realm of diabetics and chronic high blood pressure because these two cause so much damage to the kidneys (although not as much damage as it causes to the heart).  Long term use of NSAIDs and Tylenol can also destroy the kidneys.  End stage renal disease is dialysis and kidney transplant stuff.  It is not good and something we want to avoid at ALL costs.

Back to the study…

Researchers looked at two things: how much being overweight or obese at 17 years old led to the development of kidney failure up to 25 years later.  Remember–these kids had no evidence of kidney problems at 17.  Here’s what they found:

  1. Overweight adolescents  had a 300% increased risk for ESRD from all causes.
  2. Obese adolescents  increased risk was 689% for all-cause treated ESRD.
  3. Overweight kids had a 596% increased risk of being treated for kidney failure associated with diabetes.
  4. Obese kids had a whopping 1,937% increased risk for diabetic associated kidney failure.

These are shocking statistics and suggest that these kids, at age 17, are on a trajectory to a very, very poor health outcome with devastating consequences.

I do have to point out that the absolute number of these kids who are developing end stage renal disease was small, but the risk is so high that I felt the need to point this out.

If your child is overweight or headed that way, you need to recognize this threat to their long term health and begin to address it TODAY.  Later may be too late.