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.

Willie Horton’s Batting for Kids a Success!

On August 5th,  Medical Weight Loss Clinic participated as a sponsor at the 10th Annual Willie Horton’s Batting for kids.  Over 375 kids ranging from 8-15 years of age can came down to Comerica Park for the all day event.  They had the opportunity to show off their baseball skills in activities such as base running, pitching, speed pitching and batting.

Medical Weight Loss Clinic hosted the lunch and nutrition portion of the event teaching kids how to eat healthier and the importance of nutrition.  Also in attendance were about 25 volunteers from the Detroit office of the FBI doubling as both mentors and security for the day.

The event benefitted Don Bosco Hall, a community outreach group which serves at risk children and their families.
 Click here for more information on Don Bosco Hall.

Photos from the participating staff at Medical Weight Loss Clinic:

Physician counseling may improve health behaviors for teens

Physician counseling, at-home follow-up may improve teen health behaviors

A program that combines advice from a primary care physician with computer assessment, mailings and phone calls may help teens improve some aspects of their diets and physical activity levels, according to a study in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Obesity is an increasing problem among American adolescents, according to background information in the article. In the past 30 years, the percentage of teens aged 12 to 19 years who are obese has increased from 6 percent to more than 16 percent in 2002. The average child aged 6 to 11 also ate 133 more calories per day in 2000 than in 1990, and less than 40 percent of teens get the government-recommended hour of daily physical activity.

Kevin Patrick, M.D., M.S., of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues assessed the effectiveness of one intervention designed to improve diet and physical activity habits among teens, the Patient-centered Assessment and Counseling for Exercise + Nutrition (PACE+) . From May 2001 through June 2002, the researchers recruited 819 adolescents between the ages of 11 and 15 years. They assigned 424 participants (222 girls and 202 boys) to a group receiving PACE+, which begins with a computer screening and goal-setting tool completed in a primary care physician’s office. After a three- to five-minute counseling session with the doctor, the teen and his or her parents took home educational materials. They then received one year of personalized mailings and brief follow-up phone calls from trained research staff. A control group of 395 teens (216 girls and 179 boys) did not participate in the PACE+ program. Each group was assessed at six months and one year.

After one year, adolescents in the PACE+ program reduced their sedentary behaviors by one hour per day, while those in the other group did not. “This is important given that sedentary behaviors can decrease energy intake in nonoverweight adolescents and has been suggested as an important component of interventions to prevent obesity and regulate body weight,” the authors write. Boys in the PACE+ group also increased their number of active days per week and were more likely to meet the hour daily exercise requirement, and more girls in that group met the government’s guidelines for maximum percentage of daily calories from saturated fat. Since 64 percent of the teens in the PACE+ group completed at least nine of the 11 scheduled follow-up calls, the intervention is feasible, the authors report.

Source: JAMA and Archives Journals 

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