Children And Weight-Loss Surgery
Los Angeles Times, 15th May 2010
As many as 17% of American children are considered obese. Prevention is obviously the best thing to do; unfortunately it is not always possible.
British journal published an article saying that, even though the rising obesity among children start to stabilise, we still do not know what works best to prevent or reverse obesity. One of the research done in 2006 states the amount of the calory intake for children. Nowadays, however, those data seem to be too conservative. Dr. Joan C. Han, from the National Institutes of Health, says new and better study has to take place in order to know how much kids’ energy needs to be burn.
Weight-loss surgery for the children is an option but, as its safety and effectiveness is not known yet, more study has to be done.
In the recent study published in the Journal of Obesity Surgery, where family physicians and pediatricians took part, some of them responded that they would recommend obese children or teenagers to a specialist for a weight-loss surgery.
Researches continue to be carried out. A group of four hospitals led by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has been studying the circumstances under which bariatric surgery works best for children. They found, amongst others, that that bariatric surgery significantly improved abnormalities in heart function.
