ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision." —Peter Drucker

OBESITY-RELATED ILLNESSES ON THE RISE

Overweight children are being hospitalized at dramatically rising rates for diabetes, sleep apnea and other diseases that obesity causes or worsens. According to a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the journal Pediatrics (May 1, 2002), this increase has made hospital costs related to childhood obesity more than triple in the past 20 years.

Doctors have long warned that childhood obesity has become epidemic. But the new research is the first to show how much more is at stake than obese children growing into obese adults. Excessive weight can seriously sicken them. About 13 percent of children and 14 percent of adolescents are overweight, more than double the rate two decades ago. At the same time, more children have Type 2 diabetes that once struck mainly in middle age. Obesity also can worsen asthma and spark gallbladder disease. People can even die from obesity-induced sleep apnea.