Medical Risks of Child Obesity- Focus on Heart Disease

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No previous U.S. generation has raised children likely to have a shorter life expectancy than its parents. Epidemiologists at the CDC predict that obesity will soon overtake smoking as the nation's leading cause of preventable death. In the last two decades, doctors have been finding cases of what used to be "adult" diseases in overweight teenagers and children as young as age 6. New research indicates that childhood obesity itself may shorten one's life span, even if that person is not obese as an adult. It is imperative to recognize and treat childhood overweight as soon as possible in order to maximize life span.

Medical complications of obesity include:

Coronary Artery Disease
Congestive Heart Failure
Type II Diabetes Mellitus
High Blood Pressure
High Cholesterol
Stroke
Liver Disease
Gall Bladder DiseaseSeveral Kinds of Cancer
Osteoarthritis
Other Musculoskeletal Problems
Asthma
Sleep Apnea
Infertility in Women
Depression
Other Psychiatric Illnesses


Heart disease is the #1 killer of men and women in the United States. Chief risk factors include overweight, inactivity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and smoking. A Harvard study of individuals age 13-18, followed over 50 years, showed that obese boys were twice as likely to die from heart disease versus normal weight boys. Obesity that develops in childhood or adolescence causes a greater risk of early death than obesity that starts in adulthood. Autopsies of children who have died in accidents have shown abnormal fatty changes in the hearts of overweight children as young as 5 years old. It is clear that heart disease can begin at a very early age. According to the American Heart Association, a heart-healthy diet from an early age lowers cholesterol and, if continued, decreases the risk of coronary artery disease in adulthood.