With childhood obesity out of control, there comes some nasty baggage. Adult health problems such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are all now on the rise with kids. So, now children are taking obesity-related drugs to combat these problems. Indications are that hundreds of thousands of children are on drugs to control blood pressure and sugar levels.
This opens the debate on whether kids should be on these drugs in the first place. Obviously it needs to be looked at on a per-patient basis, but the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that this can be seen as an opportunity for drug companies to up their bottom line.
Here comes the “back in my day” speech… It’s time to get kids to play outside more instead of web surfing. And while I’m certainly not an old fuddy-duddy about video games, it might be nice to see kids play more honest-to-goodness mud-slinging football than by joystick on the couch.
Are they still called joysticks?
Maybe I am an old fuddy-duddy.
See this related story: Kids and Cholesterol: New Recommendations Call for Statins
This is so sad – How about exercise and healthy eating. Its more about the parents than the kids – we need healthy role models
It shouldn’t be hard to get kids to be active… they should have the time and energy. Like you say, it’s up to the parents to take responsibility.
Parents definitely hold most of the responsibility. As a culture we’re lazy, and our children have only learned it by watching their parents and mentors. I think our schools should take a more proactive approach by requiring all grades to have PE/Athletic classes (being cut or removed in some schools), as well as ensuring students are receiving as nutritious a meal as possible. Unfortunately for some kids, healthy meals aren’t an option at home- so schools should be educating their minds, as well as their sense of nutrition.