LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

childhood obesity

YOUR YOUNG DAUGHTERS NEED THIS

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In a normal situation, a young woman / girl’s body will begin to menstruate when her body understands that it is time. However, in a society that is loaded with hormone mimicking and disrupting chemicals, all too commonly menarche starts too early.  This is a very scary thing.

The early a female starts her cycles, the greater her risk for breast cancer in the future. Worse, when early menarche is forced because of estrogen-like chemicals in the environment, this is a solid recipe for breast cancer. Obesity also plays a strong role in the early onset of menarche.

Thus, being aware of and doing the best to avoid the environmental toxins (flame retardants, BPA in plastic water bottles and can liners, PCBs in electrical components and plastics, pesticides, fertilizers, etc…) is of the utmost importance. This means that we need to look around our homes and look for old cushions (dog beds!!), flame retardant mattresses, bug sprays, carpet fresheners and any other EPA registered chemicals and get them out. Period.

It means making sure our children are maintaining an ideal body weight, or at least stop procrastinating the changes to get your family there. Tomorrow is too late.

This particular study looks at early menarche from yet another angle. In this study done in Cambodia, those girls who were deficient in vitamin D had twice the chance of starting menarche early. And keep in mind that, in many studies on vitamin D, we look at deficiency, NOT optimal levels.  So what would happen if we looked at those with optimal levels instead of sufficient?

So, as a very simple tool, we should be giving our children vitamin D supplementation. But this is not in lieu of the other changes mentioned. These are our children. Their health is in your hands. Don’t screw it up.

DOES MY CHILD NEED VITAMIN D?

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I questioned whether I should add yet another boring post on the benefits of vitamin D on “x” disease.  I know–we all get it by now and we are all supplementing with reasonable levels of vitamin D.  If you are not, then there is something seriously wrong with your reading abilities, or you feel that slathering on baby oil mixed with iodine while sunbathing next to the pool here in AZ in July is getting you the levels you need.

But what about our children?  We all grew up without vitamin D supplementation and we turned out just fine, right?  Sure–if you consider massive increases in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer “fine.”

The is unquestionably some as-yet-to-be-determined factor or factors playing a role in the low levels of vitamin D in our population’s collective bloodstreams.  Obesity, UVA penetration through glass and breaking down the formation of vitamin D (think driving in the summer with your AC on and windows up), air pollution and sunscreen may all be factors.

This particular study finds that low levels of vitamin D correlate with many cardiovascular disease risk factors (waist circumference, HDL levels, insulin levels and blood pressure).  Those with the lowest levels were 71% more likely to have these risks factors.  That’s very substantial AND very scary given that this study was done in 12-19 year olds.

Personally, I make sure that my son gets, on top of rational sun exposure, around 800-1000 IU of vitamin D per day.  This is considered a very safe level of supplementation.  It also makes it easier–whenever I take mine, he knows that it’s time for him to take his. 

http://www.ajcn.org/content/94/1/225.abstract

COULD YOUR CHILD’S WILL REALLY BE HELPING?

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I firmly believe that children are made to run like little Energizer bunnies until they crash within the first 5 miles in the car or as soon as you manage to get them to lie their little heads on their pillow.  However, I think that we, as adults, do our best to temper this energy rather than let it run unbridled.

I know my 5 year old would willingly race me to every neck crack in the sidewalk if he had his way.  He is also interested in moving and would trade the chance to go to a “bouncy” place or park over just about anything else.  (the trampoline places will have to wait awhile until he gets over his recent leg fracture…)  But, just like the norm in society today, he does love video games.

Ever since the advent of the active gaming units like the Wii and now the Move and Kinex, the question has been raised about whether this will have an impact on our childrens’ increasing waist to hip ratios..

This particular study looked at changes in body composition over 6 months in 10-14 year olds when these types of game systems were used.  The changes were not Earth shattering, but certainly any improvement is a good one.

The bottom line is that these types of game systems will never replace active play, but may be a small part of the puzzle when combined with healthy diets to maintain ideal body compositions in our children.

http://www.ajcn.org/content/94/1/156.abstract

ANOTHER GREAT TOOL TO GET KIDS TO EAT BETTER

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Society certainly does not promote healthy eating.  But it does not make it impossible–it just has to be a deliberate action plan.  Getting our kids to eat healthier is NOT difficult–we just think it is.

As I’ve mentioned, it first starts with you, the parent.  You need to eat healthier.  No attempts to get your kids to eat healthier will work if you are not the example.  It has also been shown that making eating healthier foods fun will help.  That means not sticking the broccoli in little Johnny’s face saying he needs to eat it because it’s good for him.  It means making it into an adventure to eat the healthier foods.  It also means not having the unhealthy foods as an option.  Few children in the US will starve in a single day if they don’t have Oscar Meyer hotdogs available at every meal.

This particular study looks at the value of shared family meals on children’s risk of obesity and eating healthier foods and finds that at least 3 shared meals per week drastically improved the child’s eating habits and risk of obesity.  What a novel concept!

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/6/e1565.abstract

OMINOUS FINDING IN OVERWEIGHT CHILDREN

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I don’t think anyone thinks that a child being overweight is a good thing.  I also don’t think anyone would disagree that the numbers of overweight children seems to be growing faster than their waistlines.  Some parents, however, may not agree that it is their fault.  Sure, daycare and school food are, in general, horrendously bad for our children’s health.  But patterns of healthy living are formed long before children are influenced by their peers. 

As a society, however, I do not think we understand just how serious the problem is.  You may have heard me talk about telomeres before.  Telomeres are like the wick on the ends of our chromosomes.  The shorter they are, the less live that cell has left.  Overall, shorter telomeres are a bad thing and are influenced heavily by our lifestyles. 

This is why this article shocked me to the core.  Overweight children’s telomere lengths were 24% shorter than non-obese kids.  I cannot begin to adequately express the fear that these numbers generate.  A marker of overall health and longevity that is not limited to a single organ or cell type (meaning that the risk for developing ANY chronic disease will be elevated) was much worse in obese children.  I can only hope that society begins to understand the critical nature of obesity in children and begins to act accordingly.  If not, we will likely not have our children outlive us.