CBS's Early Show Discusses Child Obesity Epidemic

The fundamental impacts of poor health, and in particular obesity, are making waves in the mainstream, as illustrated by this CBS segment last week:

[Dr. Richard Saphir, a pediatrician and a member of the editorial advisory board at Child magazine] explains, “The statistics, which you won’t believe, are that in the last 30 years the amount of overweight children from 6 to 11 years of age have doubled. The amount of overweight in the 12 to 17 year age group has tripled. This has led to what used to be called, adult diseases, now coming out in children. We have a tremendous risk now, especially if there is any family history, of what’s called, adult onset diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, starting in children.”

The other chronic diseases that childhood obesity lead to are high blood pressure, which Dr. Saphir notes “you don’t think of for children. This is another thing that overweight can lead to. Also, not requiring medications to treat, but requiring to get that weight down, get some more exercise, and get in better shape. And then, the third is elevated cholesterol. You don’t think of children with high cholesterol getting plaques in their arteries and a lower incident of good health and higher incidence of heart disease as they get a bit older. So that these are things that affect children now that will affect their general lifespan and their lifespan as they get older.”