Thursday, Sep. 04, 2008

A big fat problem

TO ADULT-STYLE DIABETES and high-blood pressure, add a relatively new disease — non-alcoholic fatty liver disease — as a result of the obesity of America’s children.

The Associated Press’ review of recent medical literature and interviews with experts around the country found a consensus that between 2 percent and 5 percent of children — and perhaps as many as half of obese children — have the disease, which eventually develops into liver cancer or liver failure. A few grammar-school students are now having to receive liver transplants, and doctors predict that many of the children with the disease will need transplants by their 30s or 40s.

The good news is that there’s a relatively simple way to reverse the disease if it hasn’t advanced too far: exercise and lose weight. Unfortunately, liver disease can go undetected for decades, because its early symptoms (fatigue, appetite loss, cramping, nausea) are so vague. That makes it all the more important for parents to teach and enforce exercise and healthy eating habits — and for the rest of society to support public policies that increase the chance that children and adults will succeed.