Childhood Obesity Presents A Risk To Health

CHILDHOOD OBESITY Name: Institution: Course; Date: Childhood Obesity Introduction According to WHO, obesity is the abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. The fat accumulation is usually 20% more than their ideal weight. The most common standard for determining obesity and overweight conditions is the use of Body Mass Index (BMI) which is calculated by dividing one’s weight by the square of his/her height in meters. Many children around the world have suffered from this condition which hurts their health. Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that childhood obesity has doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. In the United States, one-third of all children are obese or overweight, and they are likely to be obese or overweight as adults which increases their likelihood of developing heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndromes and many other types of cancer. Additionally, CITATION Div18 \l 1033 (Division of Population Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2018) notes that the children are often traumatized psychologically because they are ‘more likely to be bullied than their normal-weight peers and more likely to suffer social isolation, depression, and isolation.’ This worrying trend threatens the future of the victims and has a great ripple effect on the society as it struggles to grapple with the issue. It has to channel more funds to the treatment of the diseases that often come with obesity whilst attempting to prevent the continuation of the trend. Obesity is a manageable condition which is mainly caused by poor nutritional intake in children and it leads to adverse short and long terms effects. Causes The common causes of childhood obesity are genetic factors, lack or little physical activity, unhealthy eating habits and in rare cases hormonal problems. Often, it is a combination of two or more of these factors. The genetic factor is common in some families, and the children in these families have a higher risk of suffering from the condition. Cushing’s Syndrome and hyperthyroidism have been linked to obesity. Cushing syndrome condition in which the body contains excess amounts of cortisol which associated with accumulation of visceral fat. CITATION San16 \l 1033 (Sanyal & Raychaudhuri, 2016) observe that ‘mild hyperthyrotropinemia could well be secondary to obesity, so thyroid autoantibody status may help in establishing a diagnosis of subclinical hypothyroidism in obesity.’ The hormonal problem can be addressed by hormonal therapy. Unhealthy nutritional intake coupled with little or no the physical activity is the leading cause of overweight and obese issues. High energy foods if unused are converted into fat and stored in the body. Therefore, taking high energy foods typically carbohydrates and doing little or no physical activity is likely to lead to overweight and obesity. Children lately do not do physical activity as they spend much of their time watching TVs and playing video games which have resulted in increased prevalence of overweight or obesity issues. Social policies also play a key role in increasing or reducing obesity. In Nauru and other Pacific islands, obesity is at an all-ti...