It is expected that by 2030 there will be a 60% growth in children
The disease of the new age – obesity takes on dangerous proportions in our country. The trend is on the rise with its potential health risks and accompanying complications. “Bulgaria is in the 4th place in terms of obesity in Europe. 30-40 percent of our child population is obese. The role of parents is fundamental and extremely important”, reports Dr. Tsvetelina Tsvetanova, head of the Pediatric Endocrinology Unit at the Pediatric Clinic at St. George Medical Center – Plovdiv.
The criterion for obesity is the body mass index, which is the ratio of height to weight. For adults, between 25 and 30 kilograms per square meter of height is overweight, and over 30 is obesity. Overweight is considered when the body mass index (BMI) in children over 5 years of age is between the 85th and 97th percentiles, and obesity – above the 97th percentile according to the WHO standards for assessing body mass. For children under 5 years of age, the ratio of weight to height is evaluated. According to data from the National Program for the Prevention of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases 2021-2025, a high incidence of obesity among the active-age population remains in Bulgaria. Among persons aged 30-59, 29% of men and 20% of women are obese, and among those aged 60-74 – more than 29% of men and more than 35% of women. Research shows that childhood obesity is also high and will increase by 60% by 2030.
“There are two main causes of obesity in children, and they are not related to an initial medical problem, but develop one later. In the first place is the sedentary lifestyle and too much time spent by children in front of TVs and computers, and the second reason for overweight is the way of eating and easy access to high-calorie foods and foods rich in sugars. In children with a high degree of obesity, there is a risk of unlocking 250 different diseases as an adult. Obesity leads to insulin resistance, i.e. burdens the pancreas, which begins to work at much higher speeds. This already unlocks pre-diabetes and diabetes mellitus. The main risk of high obesity is not only type 2 diabetes, but also cardiovascular diseases,” explains Dr. Tsvetanova.
It is good to know that there are less than 10 percent of children with obesity for whom there is a hormonal cause, the rest gain weight from overeating. And obesity itself leads to a number of metabolic problems. To a large extent, obese children are taller and tend to have earlier puberty, which is not a who-knows-what problem. But obese girls develop polycystic ovarian syndrome, and hence the fertility problems that have become more frequent recently.
Parental and patient awareness of the problem and changes in dietary and physical lifestyle are fundamental to the treatment of obesity. The factors that influence the feeling of satiety are the state of the central nervous system and its disorders can also lead to the appearance of obesity.
#forefront #obesity #EuropeAgro #Plovdiv
