obesity in children

Response to Stress Can Fuel Childhood Obesity

child obesty

Emerging research from Penn State and Johns Hopkins universities suggests an overreaction to stress can increase a child’s risk of becoming overweight or obese.

“Our results suggest that some children who are at risk of becoming obese can be identified by their biological response to a stressor,” said Lori Francis, Ph.D., associate professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State.

“Ultimately, the goal is to help children manage stress in ways that promote health and reduce the risks associated with an over- or under-reactive stress response.”

Francis and her colleagues recruited 43 children ages 5- to 9-years-old and their parents to participate in the study.

Researchers evaluated a child’s reactions to stress via the Trier Social Stress Test for Children — a tool that consists of a five-minute anticipation period followed by a 10-minute stress period.

During the stress period, the children were asked to deliver a speech and perform a mathematics task. The team measured the children’s responses to these stressors by comparing the cortisol content of their saliva before and after the procedure.

The researchers also measured the extent to which the children ate after saying they were not hungry using a protocol known as the Free Access Procedure. The team provided the children with lunch, asked them to indicate their hunger level and then gave them free access to generous portions of 10 snack foods, along with a variety of toys and activities.

The children were told they could play or eat while the researchers were out of the room.

The team found that, on average, the children consumed 250 kilocalories of the snack foods during the Free Access Procedure, with some consuming small amounts (20 kilocalories) and others consuming large amounts (700 kilocalories).

“We found that older kids, ages 8 to 11, who exhibited greater cortisol release over the course of the procedure had significantly higher body-mass indices [BMI] and consumed significantly more calories in the absence of hunger than kids whose cortisol levels rose only slightly in response to the stressor,” Francis said.

“We also found that kids whose cortisol levels stayed high — in other words, they had low recovery — had the highest BMIs and consumed the greatest number of calories in the absence of hunger.”

According to Francis, the study suggests that children who have poor responses to stressors already are or are at risk of becoming overweight or obese. Future research will examine whether children who live in chronically stressful environments are more susceptible to eating in the absence of hunger and, thus, becoming overweight or obese.

“It is possible that such factors as living in poverty, in violent environments, or in homes where food is not always available may increase eating in the absence of hunger and, therefore, increase children’s risk of becoming obese,” she said.

The study may be found online in the journal Appetite.

Source: Psych central

Obesity Rates Triple In Developing World

Statistics show the problem of obesity now affects almost twice as many people in poor countries than in rich ones.

The number of overweight and obese people has reached almost one billion in the developing world – overtaking rates in industrialised countries, a report has found.

The report by the UK’s Overseas Development Institute said the number of obese people has more than tripled in the developing world since 1980.

In 2008, more than 900 million people in poor countries were classed as overweight compared with around 550 million in high-income countries – almost twice as many.

Steve Wiggins, the report’s author, said: “The statistics are quite sensational, it is a tripling of the number of people who are considered overweight and obese in the developing world since 1980.

“That takes the number to more than 900 million and that is more than the number of overweight and obese people that we have in the high-income countries, which is probably around 570 million, something like that.

“It is a very rapidly emerging problem and it is now of a very large size.”

Rates of obesity are still rising in richer countries, but not at the same rate as in the developing world.

Two countries with particularly high obesity rates are China and Mexico, where the numbers of overweight people have almost doubled since 1980.

In South Africa, obesity has risen by a third and now has a higher rate than the UK.

North Africa, the Middle East and Latin America all have similar overweight and obesity rates to Europe.

Explaining the developing world’s obesity epidemic, Mr Wiggins said: “It is associated with incomes and urbanisation and a more sedentary lifestyle, so it is those emerging countries which have done the best at raising their incomes.

“It’s the middle-income countries, it is the Chinas, it is the Mexicos, which are the countries which are seeing the highest rates of overweight and obesity at the moment.”

The report predicts that if current rates continue there will be a huge increase in people suffering certain types of cancer, diabetes, strokes and heart attacks.

It also warns that governments are not doing enough to tackle the crisis, partly due to politicians’ reluctance to interfere at the dinner table, the powerful farming and food lobbies and “a large gap” in public awareness as to what constitutes a healthy diet.

Countries singled out for praise in tackling obesity are Denmark and South Korea.

In Denmark, laws against trans-fatty acids have made Danish McDonalds among the healthiest in the world, while in South Korea the government launched a large-scale public education campaign 20 years ago which has turned around obesity rates.

Mr Wiggins said: “A few decades ago the government of Korea said we must encourage our traditional foods, which are low in fats and oils, high in vegetables, high in sea food and so on.

“And there was a lot of public education, a lot of training and a sense that Korean food is good for you.”

Source: Sky News

Researchers Turn To Bears To Understand Obesity:


Although obesity statistics have somewhat leveled off in recent years, the global burden of this epidemic continues to rear its ugly head at adults and children. Scientists at the U.S. drug maker Amgen Inc. are experimenting with an unorthodox new study method that implores the help of an animal with one of nature’s biggest appetites: the grizzly bear. After watching Yogi Bear on TV, Dr. Kevin Corbit decided to uncover how the chubby cartoon character stayed healthy while gorging on food in preparation for hibernation.

The Washington State University Bear Center was established 27 years ago and served as one of the world’s only research facilities where grizzly bears can be thoroughly examined. Bears are either born at the university or taken from national parks where they were in danger of being euthanized due to close contact with humans. A research team headed up by Dr. Corbit is in the middle of two-year study in which they are drawing blood, running biopsies for fat deposit, and monitoring the heart of 12 grizzly bears.

Dr. Corbit and his colleagues were particularly interested in how a grizzly bear’s cholesterol and blood pressure spikes after they take in upward of 100 lbs. of fruit, nuts, and salmon, yet somehow remain healthy. Not only do grizzly bears lose this weight rapidly after hibernation, but they are also unaffected by the health conditions most obese humans experience such as a heart attack, stroke, or diabetes.

Findings revealed that each bear was able to adjust their hormone insulin sensitivity, which controls the amount of fat and sugars that are broken down and stored away for energy during hibernation. Grizzly bears experience high insulin sensitivity while preparing for hibernation; however, a few weeks into hibernation they completely shut off their insulin sensitivity. Dr. Corbit told The Wall Street Journal that sequencing the bear’s genome “would really accelerate the discovery research for bears.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity on a worldwide scale has doubled since 1980. Over 200 million men and 300 million women over the age of 20 were considered obese in 2008. Around 2.8 million adults die each year as the result of an obesity-related condition, making it the fifth leading cause of death around the world. Forty-four percent of obese people also develop diabetes, 23 percent suffer from heart disease, and between seven percent and 41 percent are affected by a certain type of cancer.

Source: medical daily

How to beat obesity, lifestyle diseases, by experts

EXPERTS have recommended lifestyle modifications and regular exercise as means to overcome the challenge of obesity and various complications that go along with it.

The various experts, who spoke in Lagos recently at walk against obesity exercise organized by Divine Physician and St. Luke Chaplaincy in partnership with Managed Healthcare Services (MHS) Limited, a health maintenance organization (HMO), said obesity was becoming a rampant condition among Nigerians.

Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH)/College of Medicine Lagos University Teaching (CMUL) consultant endocrinologist, Dr. Sandra Iwuala, who spoke at the event, attributed the health condition to lifestyle changes which resulted from urbanization, sedentary lifestyles, dietary changes among other factors.

Iwuala warned that if not quickly handled that obesity could lead to several health risks like diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, cataract among others.

Highpoint of the event was articulated walk engaged by hundreds of children, women and men from Idi-Araba to Masha-Kilo back to Idi-Araba- a distance of several kilometers.

Managing Director of Managed Healthcare Services (MHS) Limited, Dr. Patrick Korie explained that the walk was necessary to avoid and raise awareness about obesity, a condition, which he said, is becoming prevalent among Nigerians.

The public health expert advised Nigerians to exercise at least 30 minutes three times a week to beat obesity, adding that his organization was concerned about the wellbeing of Nigerians.

Head Chaplain, LUTH-based Divine Physician and St. Luke Chaplaincy, Rev.Fr. Kwame Owiredu said the awareness was Christ-like way of looking after the physical wellbeing of people in general.

Iwuala said, “Obesity is the excessive accumulation of body fat to the extent that it may cause harmful effect to the person or affect the person’s health negatively. We usually define obesity as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kilogram per metre square or more.

“We get that by measuring the weight of a person in kilogram and divide it by square of the height. For instance, if somebody measures 70kg and the height is 1.6, to get the BMI, we say 70 divided by 1.6 times 1.6 to get the BMI. A BMI above 30 is obesity; a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is overweight. It is not just enough to say I am not obese; my BMI is not yet 30. If your BMI is still in the overweight category, you still are still at risk of having some of the complications that obesity can bring.

“Obesity has lots of health implications. Fat is something not quiet but active; secrets hormones and doing lots of things to the body. It causes a wide range of disorders to the body, starting from the head to the toe. It can increase risk of cataract, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, asthma, sleep apnea, joint problems like osteoarthritis among others.

“Obesity is rampant because of lifestyle changes, dietary changes, urbanization so that people no longer exercise anymore; everyone wants to take bike or board a bus from point A to point B, instead of walking. Every day, we see more and more people coming down with these disorders, and obesity is one of the contributing factors. We find people whose mothers, for instance, developed diabetes at age 50 developing diabetes at 20 because of the wrong lifestyle they are living compared to the one their parents lived. We are having younger people, even at age 10, coming down with various complications of obesity.”

She urged Nigerians to check their BMI regular and live healthy lifestyles. “As individuals, we should know the category (of weight) we belong to. Check your BMI today. If your BMI is in the normal category of 18.5 to 24.9, you have to do everything to maintain it,” she said.

Source: The Guardian