Originally published January 12 2006
Obesity can stress children's bones and increase the risk of fracture
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study led by Dr. Jack Yanovski, a researcher specializing in obesity, found that 13 percent of overweight children had broken a bone, compared to only four percent of their peers at the ideal weight, suggesting that the risk of fracture and joint abnormalities is higher among overweight and obese children.
Children who are overweight face more than future health problems.
They appear to have broken bones and joint problems more often during childhood than kids of normal weight, research suggests.
A study led by her husband, obesity researcher Dr. Jack Yanovski, found that children and teens who were overweight were far more likely to have had a fracture than their ideal-weight peers.
All were enrolled in various federal health studies between 1996 and 2004 and were considered overweight if they were in the 95th percentile of weight and height for their age and sex.
A review of their medical history revealed that 13 percent of overweight kids had had at least one broken bone at some point in their lives, compared with less than 4 percent of ideal-weight children.
Similar results were found for how many had muscle, bone or joint pain, especially knee pain, and restricted movement.
With 362 pounds on his 5-foot-4-inch frame, the 14-year-old from Louisville, Ky., developed Blount's disease, a growth disorder of the shin bone that causes the lower legs to bow inward.
"I used to play football," but the bone problem put an end to that, he said.
Even more common than Blount's is SCFE, or slipped capital femoral epiphysis, caused by improper growth in the ball part of the ball-and-socket joint that forms the hip, said Dr. Junichi Tamai, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati.
Children often say their knees hurt, but the real problem is the malformation that's starting to occur in the joint, he said.
"If a child is very active, chances are the bones are very strong," because weight-bearing exercise promotes bone density, Tamai said.
In Caleb's case, orthopedic surgeries could only partly resolve the leg issues.
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