How Obesity Harms A Childs Body

How Obesity Harms A Childs Body

American children could have a shorter life span than their parents for the first time in history.

The Cause? Obesity.

With about a third of all youths overweight or worse, adverse health effects are being seen in alarming proportions. Medical experts fear those problems foreshadow what tomorrow's young adults will face as the years of excess pounds add up. So what happens inside a child or teen carrying this kind of load?

As this organ-by-organ summary shows, obesity kills slowly, causing damage from head to toe, with painful lasting effects.

HEART
Try squeezing a tennis ball 10 times in one minute. and you will get an idea of how hard a healthy heart works to pump blood. Excess weight expands total blood volume, forcing the heart to work harder. Over time. the heart muscle thickens, making it more difficult to pump. Obesity can directly affect the structure and function of the heart. In some cases. the size of the heart muscle and left atrium appears to increase in obese children. Irregularities in the left atrium would affect the heart's ability to fill properly. The pumping action of the hearts of obese children may increase, along with the amount of blood pumped out with each beat. Obese children are two to three times more likely than normal-weight children to develop high blood pressure and high cholesterol, increasing the risk for heart attacks (and strokes). As a result, more youths are being prescribed medications to minimize the risk; many will be on drugs for life. 

LIVER
Fatty liver disease is typically found in adults who indulge in high-fat foods or large amounts of alcohol. now occurs in a third of obese boys and girls, particularly Hispanics. In the short term. it can cause recurrent abdominal pain, infection, and fatigue. In the long term, it is linked to scarring and cirrhosis or the liver, liver failure (potentially requiring a transplant), and liver cancer.

GALLSTONES
Solid clusters of cholesterol that form in the gallbladder - used to be rare in children. But now, "not a week goes by when you're not operating on a child with gallstones," said surgeon Kurt Newman of the Children's National Medical Center. Obesity is a major risk factor because of how it affects the gall bladder's metabolism, increasing the amount of cholesterol in the liquid bile that helps digest fats. Gallstones can cause pain, vomiting, inflammation, and infection. 

PANCREAS
Obesity causes insulin to not work normally in the body. This is called insulin resistance. Insulin. made in the pancreas, helps bring glucose (sugar) into the body's cells, where it is the main source of energy. When people are obese and insulin-resistant, they have to make more and more insulin. Eventually, they cannot make enough insulin to meet these demands. and diabetes develops. "Type 2 diabetes will damage your blood vessels throughout your life and decrease your longevity," said Robert H. Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California at San Francisco. "Once you get Type 2 diabetes, figure you have 20 more years of life, and then you are dead. So if you get it at 15, you'll be dead at 35."

HORMONAL CHANGES
Obese girls are prone to starting their menstrual periods earlier. Because a girl usually stops growing about two years after her period begins, overweight girls might not achieve their full growth potential. Obese girls are also more likely to develop polycystic ovarian syndrome, which can cause unusual hair growth, sterility, and other symptoms.

BRAIN
Obese children are prone to pseudotumor cerebri, a little-understood buildup of pressure in fluid around the brain. It can cause severe headaches and impaired vision. At least one study has suggested obese children might also tend toward lower IQs and be more likely to have brain lesions similar to those seen in Alzheimer's patients.

LUNGS
Fat deposits in the chest wall can push against the lungs and diaphragm, making it harder for the lungs to expand and bring in oxygen. An obese child can feel out of breath while standing still. Obese children are two to five times as likely to develop sleep apnea, in which breathing is temporarily interrupted during sleep when the thicker tissues in the throat and neck sag. As a result, less oxygen is sent to the brain, which can hamper a child's ability to concentrate and learn. Sleep apnea can also heighten the risk of heart attack and stroke. 

ASTHMA
Obesity increases the risk of asthma. a disease in which the airways become constricted. Having asthma can trigger a cycle in which a child is unable to be physically active and therefore gains weight. 

BONES and GROWTH PLATES
In a child, there are special structures at the end of most bones called growth plates. The growth plate is made of a type of cartilage that lengthens the bone as a person grows. The top part of the thigh bone is shaped like a ball that fits into the hip socket. In a condition called slipped capital femoral epiphysis. the top of the ball slips off the femoral head through the growth plate. Think of the ball as a scoop of ice cream that falls off the "cone," the thighbone. In obese children, the bone and cartilage are not strong enough to bear excess weight. 

BLOUNT'S DISEASE
Excessive weight on the growth plate of the tibia can cause the lower leg to angle inward, resembling a bowleg. Unlike bowlegs, which tend to straighten as a child develops, Blount's disease is progressive and the condition worsens. This condition is more common among African-American children.

METABOLIC SYNDROME
Obesity can also lead to this relatively new condition. Excess fat in the belly produces noxious factors that interfere with normal glucose and fat metabolism and lead to inflammation in the blood vessels. Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of diabetes fivefold. If the syndrome persists into adulthood, a person is three times as likely to have a heart attack or a stroke.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

By reducing fat in your body, you reduce the production of cytokines, which in turn reduces the incidence of chronic inflammation and toxins.

NUSTART NS10 and NS28 Systems naturally cleanse the body of toxins.

It consists of a proprietary blend of herbs and nutrients, designed to cleanse the body of impurities and fat. You can do the diet once or repetitively until your target weight loss is achieved.

This is a 100% All-natural Weight Loss Program.


Leave a comment

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.