I really enjoyed watching the documentary Weight of the Nation: Part One-Consequences because it highlights the importance of targeting the younger population in America.  It is so important to target the children since they are our future and require us to care about their health in order to see a change in American’s health, as reinstated by Marsha Culpepper, who is an RN at Bogalusa Middle School.  Over the past thirty years there has been a rapid increase in the amount of obese people, and even more of a focus on the increase of child obesity; even since there has been a rise in child obesity it seems as though there has been more a stir about this public health issue now that children were involved.  Today, over 30% of children are obese, which increases their risk for many other health problems, such as asthma and cardiovascular disease.  In fact, lesions (fatty streaks) in the heart can be seen in kids as young as five and ten years old.  And now, pediatricians have to be very sensitive to high blood pressure and cholesterol amongst their young patients.  This increase in obesity is due to genetics, but also by the environment in which people are raised.  This obesity epidemic is a nature and nurture issue, where people’s behaviors also play a big factor in their health.  There needs to be safe places for kids to be able to play, such as parks and playgrounds, in order to help them be physically active.  Therefore there has to be a community approach to this epidemic to ensure there are areas where kids can be physically active in their community.  Yet more importantly, the country needs to come together as a nation to help combat the obesity epidemic; furthermore, the world needs to come together to make more healthy conscious decisions since obesity rates continue to rise world-wide.

 

          I think there has been such a rise in obesity since the 80’s because our portion sizes have greatly increased over that time period.  And not only have they gotten bigger, but unhealthy food is so accessible to everybody, even the poor.  Furthermore we learned that in Manhattan, NY, there are more than 80 McDonalds.  Since there are so many fast-food restaurants that sell cheap food, a great amount of people flock to such places for their meals.  Another great documentary that could be shown with this is called, Bodega Down Bronx” which also highlights how people, especially in rural areas, have limited access to healthy foods, but great access to unhealthy foods.  People also buy this unhealthy food due to the government subsidies, thanks to corn being turned into high-fructose corn syrup and other unhealthy food items that are not good for the body to ingest.  The government and other community organizations are also at fault for not assuring that every child ahs a safe place, like a playground, where they can be physically active.  It is also important to educate the younger generation about nutrition and what foods they should consume in moderation.  I don’t believe in completely restricting foods from a person’s diet, especially a child, but teaching moderation can be started at any age!  It is so important to start kids off exercising and eating properly at a young age so they can instill these habits into adulthood, and hopefully stop this obesity epidemic that is sweeping the nation and world.

 

          The NIH-funded Bogalusa Heart Study is very interesting for it focuses on the health of children and how their health transpires into adulthood.  This study shows how heart disease begins in childhood by following over 16,000 kids into adulthood, and was designed to look at all aspects of kids health, predicting their future health via their weight, for if they were going to develop heart disease or not.  I think this is one of the most important health studies since it highlights the important of child health.  In order for the health of America improve, we need to focus on our future–children.  The initial intention was to look at risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but after years of studying, they discovered that heart disease began in childhood.  They discovered this by performing autopsy’s and 20% of the autopsied kids had fat deposits in their coronary arteries, which in other words is plaque buildup.  This results in the children having high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  The autopsies were especially important since they were the “first scientific evidence that…plaques involved in heart disease can exist in children.”  In addition to this, Dr. Brenson’s study shows that when children are obese and they reach adulthood, they are eight times more likely to develop high blood pressure than healthy-weight children.  Many people found out they had high blood pressure via this study, which is important to be detected as early as possible so people can try to change their lifestyle, like eating healthier foods and exercising, in order to try and combat this problem.