Cause Your Health Counts

Who drives these kids to the fast food chains?

The level of childhood obesity in this world has reached an epidemic level and the cause is you “the parent”. A child’s eating habits are formed by what you buy and feed them. Their activity levels are dictated by what habits you encourage and allow. The bottom line is that there is no greater influence in a child’s health then the parents.

Go into any restaurant and you will find countless tables of kids less than three years old drinking soda. Those same kids are eating fried processed fast food numerous days of the week. How in anybody’s mind would that seem healthy. If you think that sounds bad how about the average kids breakfast in this country: Pop tarts, high sugar cereals, and McDonalds Egg Mcmuffins all washed down with a glass of less then 25% real juice. Who drives these kids to the fast food chains and who buys all the junk food in the house? YOU!
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Symptoms of diabetes for juvenile diabetes and type 2 diabetes are:

• Excessive Thirst and Urination.
• Loss of Fluids.
• Severe Hunger
• Weight Loss
• Fatigue
• Changes in Vision
• Infections
• Nerve Pain.

Excessive Thirst and Urination

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Juvenile Diabetes exist in children in the form of type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is typically a disease of childhood and can appear in children at any age. Its highest incidence, however, is in children 10 to 14 years old.

In recent years,juvenile diabetes in ages under 5 years has also increased. Recently, type 2 diabetes that is typically a disease of the adults has also been occurring in children in alarming proportions.

Juvenile diabetes symptoms are usually quite severe, and rapidly arise over weeks or months. Juvenile diabetes symptoms include thirst, excessive urination, hunger, weight loss, irritability and various other symptoms.
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9. Our children are not exercising, we must motivate them to do it

Contrary to what we see these days in the attitude of many adults, who enthusiastically embrace exercise as part of their daily life in order to enhance health, Our Children are now, more than ever before in history, choosing to live a sedentary life.

Statistics show that today’s children – between the ages of 2 to 12 – watch about 5 hours of television every day, and devote almost the rest of their non-sleeping time to video games and computer chat. Only one-third (1/3) of all elementary school children participate in schools’ physical education (PE) programs which have been largely reduced (and even eliminated from many schools) since the beginning of the 90’ s. These reductions in the amount of physical activity in schools have resulted in an increase of children’s bodies remaining inactive, fact which ultimately lowers their Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – which, simply said, means their bodies’ capability to convert food into energy when resting. In other words, this inactivity results in their decreasing the amount of calories they are able to burn. Researchers have found that children not engaged in a PE program at school, gained one inch more around the waist and two pounds more in weight, mostly of fat mass, than those who were involved in a PE curriculum. Unfortunately, sedentary children are easy prey of becoming overfat or obese.
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5. The number and size of fat Cells.
The body stores new Fat either by increasing the number of fat cells (hyperplasia), or by increasing the size of existing fat cells (hypertrophy). This is one of the most important reasons to control Childhood Obesity, since new fat cells are primarily formed during childhood. Each year of adding extra fat cells makes Adult Obesity more difficult to fight.

6. For effective, healthy and permanent weight management, understand that your Obese or Overweight Child or teen should reduce inches of body fat rather than merely lose weight.
It is important to understand the difference between weight loss and fat loss. When you lose weight, you mostly lose water and muscle but just a small amount of fat. This explains why people can lose weight but still be overweight. When they resume normal eating habits, the lost muscle tissue is replaced with even more fat. If they only lose weight, they run the risk of getting even fatter than they were before they dieted. This is known popularly as the “Yo-Yo Syndrome.” Losing inches of fat, not weight loss is the answer to successful weight management.
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1. When is a child considered obese and Level Chart of Body Fat Percentages for children ages (7 to 12) and teens ages (13-19)?

For Children ( ages 6 to 12 ) and Teenagers( ages 13 to 19 ), we must define what Obesity is and when do they reach that condition. Firstly, we must understand that Obesity is defined as “ an excessive accumulation of body fat “. The total body weight is composed of Lean Body Mass (that is, water, bones, collagen and muscle) and Fat Mass. Secondly, in order to understand the present body fat status of your child or teenager, please refer to the following “ Body Fat Percentage Chart ” that I’ve prepared with information provided by Tanita Ltd., and which classifies him/her by age and gender, from ages 7 to 19, under four levels : Underfat, Healthy, Overfat or Obese.

Look for the answer in the following level chart: (more…)

The average age range for menopause is 45 – 55 years old, and premature menopause is defined as menopause that occurs in women under the age of 40. It’s hard to imagine that young women in their twenties and even teens can also experience early menopause. It’s rare. But this does happen.

In most cases where a girl experiences early menopause, there is a factor such as hysterectomy, partial hysterectomy, autoimmune disorder, viral infections, or possibly radiation or chemotherapy for cancer treatment. However, there are other factors that can contribute to early menopause in girls.
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If you needed one more reason to eat healthy while you’re pregnant, here it is. Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Massachusetts have found a link between prenatal nutrition and adult onset diabetes. In the study, a team of researchers led by Dr. Mary-Elizabeth Patti deliberately malnourished a group of mice during the third trimester of pregnancy.

As expected, the mice who were born to malnourished mothers were low birth weight. After birth, all the baby mice were fed a healthy diet, and within a few weeks, the low birth weight babies had caught up with their peers and seemed perfectly healthy. They weren’t, though. After reaching adulthood, the majority of mice from the malnourished group developed Type 2 diabetes. While low birthweight has been known as a risk factor for the development of diabetes, the Joslin study established an unmistakable link between prenatal nutrition and diabetes.
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Did you know that teeth are being formed in the mouth of a baby whilst he or she is still in the womb? They are usually still concealed beneath the gums, but many babies begin to have visible teeth anywhere between the six month and nine month mark. There is no hard and fast rule for the time of the first teeth.

On average a baby will be boasting about eight teeth by the time they celebrate their first birthday. Since this is just an average, do not worry if your baby has less or more – it is not important.

Regardless of the number of these little white teeth and when they arrive, what does matter is to start a dental hygiene program at the sight of them. They are milk teeth, of course, but just because they will naturally give way to adult teeth does not mean we should neglect them.
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Before they even enter the world a baby will have begun to form teeth. Very few new borns have visible teeth, but they are still there, hidden by gum. Most often the first sign of exposed teeth comes 6-9 months into life, though this can vary between babies.

A one year old child is likely to have 8 little chompers – some will have more, some less (hey, it is only an average,it does not mean anything!)

Although these are milk teeth (or deciduous teeth) – which means that at some point they will be substituted by adult teeth, this does not mean that these teeth should not be well cared for. In fact it is very important to look after these teeth.
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