The Health News USA October 13 2017
- The number of obese children and adolescents rose to 124 million in 2016 — more than 10 times higher than the 11 million classified as obese 40 years ago, in 1975. A further 213 million children and adolescents were overweight in 2016, finds a new study published in the Lancet.
- Sara McGlockin’s 2-year old daughter Marian has been diagnosed with Neimann-Pick disease type C which is commonly referred to as childhood Alzheimer’s. Marian enrolled in the clinical trial in a hospital in Chicago before it was made available at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She is the youngest to receive the treatment and is on a two-week schedule. It involves medication infused through a spinal tap so that it can easily travel to the brain.
- “Sesame Street” and its nonprofit arm Sesame Workshop introduced a “Traumatic Experiences” portal on Friday to help kids and adults cope with tragic and stressful events. The portal, part of the nonprofit’s Sesame Street in Communities site, includes videos, articles, workshops and activities to help children under 6 years old understand their feelings and the world around them, as well as helping adults to see the needs of their kids and act accordingly.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 13th of October 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/10/health/child-adolescent-obesity-global-increase/index.html
The number of obese children and adolescents rose to one hundred twenty four million in two thousand sixteen — more than ten times higher than the eleven million classified as obese forty years ago, in nineteen seventy five. A further two hundred thirteen million children and adolescents were overweight in two thousand sixteen, finds a new study published Tuesday in the Lancet. Looking at the broader picture, this equated to roughly five point six percent of girls and seven point eight percent of boys being obese last year. Most countries within the Pacific Islands, including the Cook Islands and Nauru, had the highest rates globally, with more than thirty percent of their youth ages five to nineteen estimated to be obese. The United States and some countries in the Caribbean, such as Puerto Rico, as well as the Middle East, including Kuwait and Qatar, came next with levels of obesity above twenty percent for the same age group, according to the new data, visualized by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration.
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“Rates of child and adolescent obesity are accelerating in East, South and Southeast Asia, and continue to increase in other low and middle-income regions,” said James Bentham, a statistician at the University of Kent, who co-authored the paper. Obesity in adults is defined using a person’s body mass index, the ratio between weight and height. A body mass index (BMI) of eighteen point five to twenty four point nine is classified as a healthy weight, twenty five to twenty nine point nine considered overweight and thirty and over obese. Cut-offs are lower among children and adolescents and vary based on age. Being obese as a child comes with a high likelihood of being obese as an adult and the many health consequences that come with it, including the increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers. The potential for these chronic conditions into adulthood also puts an increased burden on health systems — and financial constraints on individuals.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/10/10/2-year-old-with-childhood-alzheimers-becomes-youngest-enrolled-in-clinical-trial.html
Sara McGlocklin said she noticed her daughter Marian was struggling to swallow at just six months. Now age two and with a confirmed diagnosis of Niemann-Pick disease type C, McGlocklin hopes a clinical trial at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles will help stave off the disorder commonly referred to as “childhood Alzheimer’s.” Sarah told CBS Los Angeles that there is no cure whatsoever. The progressive genetic disorder causes a gradual buildup of fat and toxins in the cells. Neurological symptoms typically appear in patients between the ages of four and ten, with younger patients experiencing enlarged liver, enlarged spleen and vision difficulty. The disease is always fatal, and the majority of patients die before age twenty, according to the National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation. Marian first enrolled in the clinical trial in a hospital in Chicago before it was made available at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She is the youngest to receive the treatment and is on a two-week schedule. It involves medication infused through a spinal tap so that it can easily travel to the brain. McGlocklin said she’s already seen improvements in her daughter, who went from not being able to take a single step to now walking across the room. She said she’s aware that the experimental treatment will not halt the disease’s progression forever.
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The family, which includes Marian’s older sister Emily who does not have the disease, has started the Hope for Marian Foundation to spread awareness and raise money for research.
Sesame Street and its nonprofit arm Sesame Workshop introduced a “Traumatic Experiences” portal on Friday to help kids and adults cope with tragic and stressful events. The portal, part of the nonprofit’s Sesame Street in Communities site, includes videos, articles, workshops and activities to help children under six years old understand their feelings and the world around them, as well as helping adults to see the needs of their kids and act accordingly. The videos star Elmo, Abby, Big Bird and the other muppet and adult characters from “Sesame Street” as the adults teach the muppets how to express their feelings, self-care with hugs, and hit pillows to get their anger out. Sesame Street has launched a new site, Sesame Street in Communities that has multi-media tools to help kids and families enrich and expand their knowledge during the early years of birth through six. Other activities on the site include breathing exercises, coloring activities and yoga — any of which can be done with parents/caregivers and children together. “Children need to know — especially during hard times — that they’re not alone. Sesame Street has always been a source of comfort to children dealing with very difficult circumstances, and given how few resources there are for young children dealing with traumatic experiences, we knew we could help,” Sherrie Westin, Executive Vice President for Global Impact and Philanthropy at Sesame Workshop, said in a statement. She added that it was especially important now, in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting and recent natural disasters.
According to the two thousand sixteen National Survey of Children’s Health, one in four children endure more than one traumatic experience before they reach eighteen. These adverse childhood experiences include domestic, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, emotional or physical neglect, witnessing violence, living through natural disasters, parental addiction or mental illness, divorce and parental incarceration. Sesame Workshop aims to help adults keep these traumatic events from adversely affecting the rest of their children’s lives. The activities and techniques are based on the latest research in childhood trauma and created with the help of childhood development experts.
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