By Gary Dickson
Lake County”s royalty, Jennifer Humble, Miss Lake County and Alice Crockett, Lake County”s Miss Outstanding Teen, were guest speakers at the Lakeport Rotary Club meeting this week. Both are wonderful representatives for the county. During her presentation, each young lady made it a point to inform the club about the No. 1 cause that they support.
Jennifer Humble mentioned that after attending a muscular dystrophy (MD) camp she became a lifetime supporter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association cause. Taking a different direction, Outstanding Teen Alice Crockett stated that she has chosen childhood obesity as the societal ill that she will fight against.
During the afternoon after the meeting my mind kept wandering back to the two afflictions picked to be battled.
MD is currently listed as an incurable disease that impacts from 400 to 600 live births per year in the United States. The disease is genetic in nature. The disease was named in the late 1800s after the French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne who had performed studies on a group of young boys who showed signs of progressive weakness. Progress has been made over the years with drugs and physical therapy, but it is still incurable.
Childhood obesity, on the other hand, was hardly a blip on the medical community radar screen 50 years ago when I was growing up. Today about 13 percent of American adolescents are overweight or obese. That number has doubled in the last 20 years. Childhood obesity, unlike MD, is a preventable affliction for almost all children.
While the health problems that are generated from childhood obesity may not, in the short run, be as consequential as MD, the long term effects can be horrendous. Childhood onset diabetes is currently epidemic in the United States. Diabetes used to be a disease of middle age, but now it impacts our youth. Other health issues caused or worsened by children being overweight include asthma, sleep apnea and gallbladder disease. The quality and length of life are negatively impacted by obesity.
Why did most of the children of my generation, and those who came before us not deal with being overweight? There are several differences. First, children used to play outdoors in all kinds of weather. Today, children hole up in their room after school or all day in the summer, watching television, playing video games or talking and texting on their cell phone.
Many mothers used to be stay-at-home moms and prepared meals at home every night.
When the economy dictated that most moms had to work, more families began to eat take-out food for evening meals. I have never been critical of fast food, but a constant diet of fast food can be problematic. Connected to this is the fact that portions and drink sizes have increased over the years, so the calorie intake skyrocketed. Couple that with a more sedentary lifestyle and it brings us to the current state.
When we first started seeing the National Football League”s television commercials for Play 60 youth fitness program it made my wife and I chuckle. Not because the program isn”t positive or necessary, but because we both remembered the days of our youth and how no one needed to motivate us to go outside and play for 60 minutes. We both shared stories of how our parents had to turn the porch light on and step outside to call us in at night because we were actively playing games with the group of neighborhood kids.
Today, programs that motivate youngsters to spend more time at active play are not only necessary, but critical to the future health of our society. We cannot allow the childhood obesity percentage to continue to double every 20 years. If that happens, U.S. average life expectancy will drop rapidly and health care costs will sink everyone into debt.
The fight against childhood obesity is a cause that we all need to support.
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. Email him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
