Obesity Facts and Information

Childhood Obesity Boosts Risk of GERD

Obese older children are at increased risk for developing the painful digestive disease known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), researchers from Kaiser Permanente in California report. In fact, extremely obese children have up to a 40 percent higher risk of GERD, while those who are moderately obese have up to a 30 percent higher risk of [...]

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Moms’ full-time work tied to childhood obesity

The growing number of full-time working moms in the past few decades could be one of the factors contributing to the concurrent rise in childhood obesity, new research hints. In a study of more than 8,500 UK adults followed since their birth in 1958, researchers found that the study participants’ young children were 50 percent more [...]

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Oregon has lowest rate of childhood obesity

What’s the magic in Oregon that keeps kids lean? It’s a mystery health officials would like to solve as they admit all states are failing — by a mile — to meet federal goals for childhood obesity. Oregon has the nation’s lowest rate of hefty kids, according to a new government study, which found big gaps [...]

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3 Simple Steps Can Cut Childhood Obesity

A new study finds three household routines lower the risk of obesity in children: having family dinners, getting enough sleep and limiting weekday TV time. Four-year-olds in homes that followed these practices had a nearly 40 percent lower prevalence of obesity than children who did none of these things. Of course childhood obesity - a soaring phenomenon [...]

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Federal Panel Urges Obesity Screening for Kids Ages 6 and Up

A federal panel of health experts has issued new recommendations encouraging U.S. doctors to screen children aged 6 and older for obesity, and to offer them a referral to intensive weight management programs when necessary. The recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) update those issued in 2005. At that time, the group said [...]

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Missing DNA can promote childhood obesity

Some children get severely obese because they lack particular chunks of DNA, which kicks their hunger into overdrive, researchers report. The British researchers checked the DNA of 300 children who’d become very fat, on the order of 220 pounds by age 10. They looked for deletions or extra copies of DNA segments. They found evidence that several [...]

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Kids should get moving to avoid obesity

Vigorous exercise may be an especially good way to keep kids lean, but sitting around, in and of itself, doesn’t appear to have a major role in making them fat, new research shows. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of reasons to avoid too much sedentary “screen time,” Dr. Ulf Ekelund of the MRC Epidemiology Unit in [...]

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Should Parents of Overweight Kids Lose Custody?

Should morbidly obese children be taken from their parents? That’s the question an increasing number of countries are grappling with amid the Western world’s obesity epidemic. The latest case to make headlines concerns a Scottish couple who lost custody of two of their six children on the basis of what was, their lawyer claims, a failure [...]

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