Childhood Obesity Essay

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There has been a lot of research regarding problems with obesity in American children. More specifically, children that are overweight can lead to more serious health risks such as cardiovascular disease, trouble breathing and cancer in the future. Being overweight or obese can cause long and short term health risks, increase the cost of care and place social implications on the child. There are many roles that contribute to obese. Some of the roles include genetic factors, environment, behavior; metabolism, culture, socioeconomic class and the history of obese contribute to this condition (Pulgaron 2014). In order to reduce childhood obesity, prevention techniques and treatments such as medication, therapy, and education must be set in placed. …show more content…

There are many health risks that can last short term or even long term. Being obese later in life can cause many complications. Some of the complications include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes, sleeping problems, lower self-esteem, fatty liver disease, colon, breast and prostate cancer, low vitamin D levels and mental or emotional problems in the future such as social isolation and depression, poor quality of life and discrimination. When children are maturing and becoming young adults, being overweight can cause problems to their growth too. Hans 2010 says when kids are aging, overweightness can cause maturation to happen earlier which can cause bones to misalign. Reily and colleagues (2003) organized a review on the results of health factors that are linked to childhood obesity. They suggested that children that are obese have compelling short and long term detrimental medical and emotional effects that continue into adulthood. Additionally, there was a strong indication that child obesity encourages sadness and death into adulthood (Pulgaron 2014). Statistics show that at least 2.6 million people die because they are overweight or obese. (Who 2015). Obesity is a serious topic and should be addressed to help reduce the unwanted health risks that are associated with

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