Detroit Pistons and Medical Weight Loss Clinic Host “Be Fit” Assembly with special guest John Long

Detroit Pistons Year Round Hoops Director Aaron Smith is joining Medical Weight Loss Clinic to address childhood obesity by delivering an interactive “Be Fit” assembly to 200 students at Maybury Elementary School in downtown Detroit.  Smith and Pistons Legend John Long, Pistons Mascot, Hooper, members of the Detroit Pistons Dance Team and Palace Patrol will demonstrate fitness techniques and discuss how to maintain a healthy diet. Personal messages from Detroit Pistons Center Ben Wallace and Strength and Conditioning Coach Arnie Kander will also be aired for students during the assembly.

This event is in conjunction with NBA FIT Live Healthy Week, which tipped off on Wednesday, January 25 and continues through Feb. 2. During this week, all 30 teams and their players join community members and partners to highlight the importance of living an active, healthy lifestyle through grassroots programs and events, special oncourt apparel, in-arena health screenings and online programming.

This event is in conjunction with NBA FIT Live Healthy Week, which tipped off on Wednesday, January 25 and continues through Feb. 2. During this week, all 30 teams and their players join community members and partners to highlight the importance of living an active, healthy lifestyle through grassroots programs and events, special oncourt apparel, in-arena health screenings and online programming.

Maybury Elementary School is a multicultural, child-centered learning community that focuses on individual student achievement and unrestricted opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills for success in life, through educational practices that meet the needs of our students in collaboration with families and community.

In 2011, Maybury received a $31,000 grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s Building Healthy Communities school program, which is designed to help children and their families live healthier lives. The group aims to improve physical activity and nutrition education in elementary schools across Michigan, increases the opportunities for children to eat well and enacts programs that are relevant and beneficial to children.

About Medical Weight Loss Clinic

Medical Weight Loss Clinic is the largest established medically supervised weight loss program in the Midwest.  It was founded in 1986 and has over 30, corporately owned, brick and mortar clinics throughout Michigan and across northern Ohio. The Medical Weight Loss Clinic’s online Virtual Clinic is also available for patients that are not within driving distance of a clinic. The Virtual Clinic is utilized by 1000s of patients both nationally and internationally. All Medical Weight Loss Clinic programs are customized based upon a patient’s medical profile, use regular grocery store food and feature unlimited visits to the clinic for nutritional guidance and individual support. Each patient receives one-on-one support from MWLC professionals with the focus of the weight loss program to help patients develop healthy and satisfying eating habits.

About NBA Cares        

NBA Cares is the league’s global community outreach initiative that addresses important social issues such as education, youth and family development, and health and wellness. The NBA and its teams support a range of programs, partners and initiatives that strive to positively impact children and families worldwide. As part of the league’s mission to demonstrate leadership in social responsibility, NBA Cares reaches communities through philanthropy, hands-on service and legacy projects. Since October 2005 when NBA Cares was launched, the league and teams have raised more than $175 million for charity, provided more than 1.8 million hours of hands-on service, and built more than 675 places where kids and families can live, learn or play in communities around the world.

Regular exercise helps obese youths reduce, reverse risk for heart disease, study shows

Regular exercise can help obese children shrink more than just their waistlines, new research shows. The activity also can help them to reduce – and even reverse – their risk of developing cardiovascular disease, including hardening of the arteries.

The research, conducted at the University of Rostock in Germany, appears in the Nov. 7, 2006 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

“We think the most important message is that atherosclerosis – hardening of the arteries – starts during childhood in the presence of such risk factors as obesity and sedentary lifestyle,” said lead researcher Andreas Alexander Meyer, MD, a pediatrician and pediatric cardiologist at the University of Rostock Children’s Hospital. “Regular exercise is one of the most important activities we can do on our own to reduce the risk and reverse the early development of atherosclerosis.”

This information is vital, Dr. Meyer said, as the need continues to grow to help children protect their health without becoming dependent upon prescription medications. According to the World Health Organization, childhood obesity already is “epidemic in some areas and on the rise in others.” Worldwide, an estimated 22 million children under age 5 are overweight. In some countries, including the United States, more than 30 percent of all children are considered obese.

For their study, Dr. Meyer and his colleagues defined obesity as having a body mass index (BMI) in excess of the 97th percentile for German children. BMI is determined by a mathematical formula that uses height and weight to calculate body fat.

In adults, a BMI between 18 and 24.9 is considered normal, a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight, and a BMI of 30 or more is considered obese. Specific ranges don’t exist for children, but most of the teen-agers in the University of Rostock study had BMIs ranging from 24 to 35.

Compared with normal children, the obese youths also already were showing signs of early hardening of the arteries as well as thickening of the arterial lining where atherosclerosis originates.

For the study, the researchers randomly assigned 67 obese teens to one of two groups. The first group exercised three times per week for six months. The youths participated in an hour of swimming and aqua aerobics on Mondays, 90 minutes of team sports on Wednesdays, and 60 minutes of walking on Fridays. The other teens added no exercise to their normal routines.

After six months, the researchers found that the youths who were exercising regularly had significantly improved the flexibility of their arteries, allowing the arteries to carry more oxygen-rich blood to the body when needed. The teens also had shrunk the expanded inner layer of their arteries and reduced several other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including lowering their BMIs, cutting triglyceride and cholesterol levels, and lowering blood pressure.

Previous research has indicated that the heart-healthy benefits of exercise wear off if regular activity is discontinued, Dr. Meyer said, so encouraging all children to maintain an exercise routine is important.

“We think that 90 minutes of exercise, three times per week is the minimum children need to reduce their cardiovascular risk,” Dr. Meyer said. “And it’s important that children enjoy exercise, so we recommend games like soccer, football, basketball and swimming – especially for obese children.

“Low perseverance and motivation seem to be distinctive for overweight children,” he said, noting his concern over the number of teens who dropped out of the six-month study. “We have intensive talks with children and their parents about their medical status and vascular changes. We let them know that it is their own decision to change their prognosis.”

To help children to monitor their success, Dr. Meyer recommends regular visits to the pediatrician combined with continuous support and encouragement from parents.

Albert P. Rocchini, MD, did not participate in the research, but is a pediatric cardiologist at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan. Dr. Rocchini said he, too, is concerned about motivating overweight children, especially teen-agers, to lead healthier lives.

“That’s a very difficult problem,” Dr. Rocchini said. “Sometimes education helps to let them know that they aren’t invincible and they do have factors that will affect them very adversely as they grow older. We want young people to understand that now is the time to start dealing with health issues before they become permanent. But it takes time to get through to them.”

Studies like this help with the education process, Dr. Rocchini said, because they show how and why carrying extra weight can lead to cardiovascular disease. Not all previous studies have documented vascular changes in obese children.

“I would take this as good and bad news,” Dr Rocchini said of the study. “The bad news is, (early evidence of disease) is there, but the good news is it’s not fixed and permanent. There’s something you can do to make it better. That’s the important message to share with people.”

Source: American College of Cardiology 

How much do you weight? Be honest, you’re life could depend on it…

Obese and overweight women, children underestimate true weight

Overweight and obese mothers and their children think they weigh less than their actual weight, according to research reported at the American Heart Association’s Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions.

In the study of women and children in an urban, predominantly Hispanic population, most normal weight women and children in the study correctly estimated their body weight, but most obese women and children underestimated theirs.

“Obesity is a well-known risk factor for the development of many diseases, including heart disease and diabetes,” said Nicole E Dumas, M.D., lead author and an internal medicine resident at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. Dumas and colleagues surveyed women and their pre-adolescent children attending an urban, primary care center in New York City. They asked the subjects about their age, income, heart disease risk factors, and perceptions of their body size using silhouette images that corresponded to specific body mass index (BMI) types — for example, underweight, normal and overweight.

The researchers also recorded participants’ height, weight and BMI, which is a measurement of body weight based on height. A BMI of 25-29 is overweight, and a BMI over 30 is obese.

The researchers found:

• 65.8 percent of the mothers surveyed were overweight or obese.
• 38.9 percent of children surveyed were overweight or obese.
• 81.8 percent of obese women underestimated their weight compared to 42.5 percent of overweight and 13.2 percent of normal weight women; similarly, 86 percent of overweight or obese children underestimated their weight compared to 15 percent of normal weight children.
• Of mothers with overweight or obese children, almost half (47.5 percent) thought their children were of normal weight.
• Children selected larger body images than those chosen by their mothers to describe an “ideal” or “healthy” body image for a woman.
• 41.4 percent of the children in the study thought their moms should lose weight.

“These findings imply that not only is obesity prevalent in urban America, but that those most affected by it are either unaware or underestimate their true weight,” she said. “In addition, obesity has become an acceptable norm in some families. Strategies to overcome the obesity epidemic will need to address this barrier to weight loss.”

Future research should include interventions that study the effect of increased accuracy of body image perception on weight loss among families.

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Co-authors are Robert R Sciacca, Eng.Sc.D.; Jennifer Decolongon, M.D.; Juviza K. Rodriguez, B.A.; and Elsa-Grace V Giardina, M.D.

Author disclosures are on the manuscript. The study was funded by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Arlene and Joseph Taub Foundation.

Note: Actual presentation time is 5 p.m. ET, Wednesday, March 23, 2011.

Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available atwww.americanheart.org/corporatefunding.

Source: American Heart Association

Obese Adolescents at Greatest Risk of Becoming Severely Obese Adults

Obese adolescents are 16 times more likely to become severely obese by age 30 than their healthy weight or even overweight peers, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Public health researchers found that nearly 40 percent of obese adolescents are expected to become severely obese by age 30, compared to only 2.5 percent of healthy weight and overweight teenagers.

The study was published in the Nov. 10, 2010, issue of theJournal of the American Medical Association. It is believed to be the first longitudinal study to examine the persistence and development of severe obesity over the transition from the teenage to adult years.

The link found between adolescent obesity and adult severe obesity suggests intervention programs might be most effective during childhood or adolescence, before the worst weight gain occurs, said senior study author Penny Gordon-Larsen, Ph.D., associate professor of nutrition in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a fellow of the Carolina Population Center.

“Severe obesity can lead to life-threatening complications, including diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, asthma and arthritis, as well as substantial reductions in life expectancy,” she said. “It’s critical that we identify who is most at risk for this condition, and when they are most vulnerable to it. Then we’ll have better evidence for when and how to effectively intervene.”

Current weight loss drugs are either minimally effective or come with a high risk of side effects, while people who have bariatric surgery, or “stomach stapling” operations, can suffer major potential complications, said Natalie The, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate and lead author of the study. Therefore, preventing severe obesity may be the most effective strategy to avoid obesity-related health risks, she said.

Researchers defined adult severe obesity as a body mass index (BMI) of greater than or equal to 40, and being overweight and obese as a BMI greater than 25.

The study found that while 1.2 percent of males and 2.4 percent of females who were normal weight as adolescents became severely obese as adults, 37 percent of males and 51 percent of females who were obese as adolescents became severely obese as adults. The risk of becoming severely obese was highest in black females.

“While we know that the transition from the teenage years to the adult years is one of high risk for weight gain, few studies have tracked individuals over time to understand the risk of developing severe obesity,” The said.

To measure the association between obesity in adolescence and severe obesity in adulthood, researchers studied data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. More than 8,800 people aged 12-21 in 1996 were followed into adulthood (ages 24-33 in 2007-2009).

Results showed that across all weight, sex and racial and ethnic groups, 7.9 percent of these teenagers who were not severely obese as adolescents became severely obese as young adults 13 years later. On the other hand, 70 percent of the teens who were severely obese remained so as they aged.

On average, over the period of the study, a teenage female of 5 feet 4 inches tall weighing 130 pounds who never developed severe obesity gained about 30 pounds; however a female of the same height who did become severely obese gained about 80 pounds.

“Obese adolescents are at considerably high risk for becoming adults with severe obesity,” Gordon-Larsen said. “Given the rapid rise in severe obesity and its associated health risks, early prevention efforts are critically needed.”

Along with Gordon-Larsen and The, the study co-authors were Chirayath Suchindran, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics, Kari North, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology, and Barry Popkin, Ph.D., professor of nutrition, all of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

The study’s title is “Association of Adolescent Obesity with Risk of Severe Obesity in Adulthood.”

Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill