Childhood Obesity - Do you have an overweight child? We offer tips to help your child lose weight and get fit!

The My Overweight Child blog will help you keep informed about the latest research, findings, and resources available to parents of overweight or obese kids. There are many knowledgeable people working on the increasingly dire problem of childhood obesity - and we want to give parents a place where they can check in regularly to see the latest studies and tips available to help you help your child lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

We invite you to add your comments - if you have feedback for the blog, would like some specific topics covered, or you just want to share your experience as a parent dealing with childhood obesity.

Friday, December 04, 2009

High-Fat Diet May Impair Memory, Impact Ability to Exercise

An study on animals has revealed that a high-fat diet takes an immediate toll on short-term memory and the ability to exercise.
  • Researchers at Cambridge University in Britain fed rats a low-fat diet and trained them to complete a maze.
  • Then half the rats were switched to a high fat diet.
  • Within just four days, the rats on the high fat diet began to fail the maze test, and they performed 30 percent worse on treadmills.
"We expected to see changes but not so dramatic and not in such a short space of time," said Professor Andrew Murray. "It was really striking how quickly these effects happened."

The study appeared in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

Labels: diet, brain_activity, research, exercise, memory

Posted By: Aspen/CRC

Comments:

antoine on 12/6/2009
The effects of childhood obesity can be traumatic to the childs life. Some of the effects of childhood obesity, that is rarely discussed, are orthopedic problems, headaches, fatty liver disease, menstrual irregularities for females and issues with the skin. Orthopedic problems (including Blounts disease) are from increased weight being placed on the growth plate of the hip, which damages the cartilage, causes pain and limits movement. Even worse is the scenario found that due to extra weight being placed on the growing hips caused these heavier girls to be three times likely to need hip replacement later in life than that of woman that maintained a healthy weight throughout their younger years. Headaches can be related to obesity (such as pseudo tumor cerebri and other forms). These types of headaches are caused by an increased pressure within the brain tissue. Nearly 50 percent of children with this problem are overweight. Fatty Liver Disease (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis) is caused when liver activity is unnecessarily high due to increased fats circulating in the body. Related problems like gallstones and inflammation of the gallbladder may occur, and especially happens when a person is trying to lose weight. Menstrual irregularities related to obesity are ovarian cysts (polycystic ovary disease), acne, mood swings, facial hair, balding, and even infertility (symptoms that are every young womans nightmare). Cosmetic issues that can occur with obesity is thick, dark velvety skin growths (acanthosis nigricans) in the folds and creases of the skin, can be found especially around the neck, s a common symptom among obese children.