subject: Children And Teens Are Increasingly Becoming Obese [print this page] Childhood obesity is a major and constant problem in the United States and this has had professionals from every stripe confused and befuddled. Of course it does not help that just about anything sold in the US that is a sweet liquid contains copious amounts of high fructose corn syrup. This, however, is another issue that we are not going to discuss in this article. Obese children almost seem like they never had a chance at life, and we feel that is a sad testimony. These kids already suffer from a bunch of problems ranging from back pain to arthritis to Type II diabetes and, of course, bullying. This is a hard and terrible subject and we'll look at it some more in this article.
The medical conditions that will be experienced by any obese child or teen are highly variable. Lots of different things, including genetics, have influence here. Kids who are severely obese are more likely to develop issues that affect their bones and joints. Load bearing joints, in particular, are more likely to develop issues. The feet, ankles, knees and hips are particularly prone to skeletal stress. Typically the kids will experience joint pain in their backs as well as constant low but steady pressure filled swelling around all of their joints. Kids and teens are very commonly diagnosed with arthritis as well.
The most serious risks are mostly involving the cardiovascular system. Elevated serum cholesterol and triglycerides in fatty blood profiles are something obese children are known to have. These heart diseases require immediate intervention because they start early on in life. Just think about a young child having to take medication that has been prescribed to counter the effects of their high cholesterol. If an adult starts taking this medication then there are known side effects that they will have to accept.
Because of this, it is only complicated for a teen or a young child to take these medicines.
The process of socialization and development of a human's personality and individuality gets a lot faster during the teen years. The development of a teen's body image is especially critical as well. Obviously an obese teen will have an extraordinarily difficult time achieving any semblance of normal development in those areas. This means that when the teen leaves high school he or she will be at severe developmental disadvantages. Normal competition and success levels will be far more challenging for these kids. The serious issue of obesity in young children and teens is one that will actually effect everybody. You should also look at it from the point of view of how much it costs society. Obese kids typically become obese grown ups and that comes with all sorts of medical and personal costs. So this is honestly a societal problem even though that is not how most people think of it.