Health: Eight-to-Nine-Year-Olds With High Blood Pressure

In the London Evening Standard yesterday (22 March 2011) there was an article about children being referred to Great Ormond Street as young as eight with signs of metabolic syndrome. 

Metabolic syndrome?  These children suffer from obesity, have dangerously high blood pressure and exhibit early signs of Type II diabetes (formerly known as adult-onset diabetes). 

People often dismiss the above stories as scaremongering - however this is reality.  Great Ormond Street is one of the world's leading children's hospitals (based in London, UK) and as such is likely to be an authority based on the numbers of children likely to be seen in the capital. 

It's unfortunate that the options looked at by the researchers are anti-obesity drugs, surgery, and improving self-esteem.  Curative or stalling measures rather than prevention.

Apparently one in nine children starting school (four-to-five years old) in London are obese.  The results of the largest research project on childhood obesity will be interesting reading.

Read the original article here:  --> http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23934305-obese-eight-year-olds-at-risk-of-strokes.do