Health for Body Mind and Soul

Since 1980 the incidence of obesity has increased three-fold in many countries worldwide. By 2005 there were more than one billion adults who were overweight and almost half a million of them were obese. Tweens are not exempt from this epidemic. There are approximately 155 million overweight children globally and between 30 to 45 million of them are obese.The co-morbidities associated with obesity has a huge financial impact on health care.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the chronic diseases that is associated with obesity in adults and children and adolescents are also being diagnosed with this condition. The complications of cardiovascular disease include hypertension and metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a complex process associated with increase body fat and includes such metabolic abnormalities as type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance and dyslipidaemia.

The greater the severity of obesity among children and adolescents, the greater the likelihood that they will be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. These children have the highest risk of cardiovascular disease. The risks are increased in tweens with elevated LDL cholesterol, blood pressure, and BMI. Obstructive sleep apnea is linked to obesity and thought to contribute to changes in the blood vessels that are associated with cardiovascular disease (Ho, 2009).

While these conditions are severe and life-threatening the good news is that they can be reversed with diet and activity.