CNN’s Larry King hosts discussion of childhood obesity
By Veronica Jauriqui
Speaking at the Aresty Conference Center on the USC Health Sciences Campus, health policy leaders joined CNN talk show host Larry King in discussing the causes, consequences and possible solutions to childhood obesity.
The cause of increasing obesity over the last 20 years, panelists said, is the change in lifestyle – a decrease in exercise and an increase in consumption.
“If your parents both work and you don’t have dinner at home cooked by your mom or your dad, you tend to go out to fast food places,” said Bill Van Antwerp, distinguished scientist in the Science and Technology Organization at Medtronic. “Kids who are at home alone don’t go out and play any more. Even in the world of research, it used to be that you’d go to the library and spend an hour walking up and down the steps in the stacks to find a reference article. Now with the kids in my lab, if it doesn’t exist in PDF, if they can’t get it with one finger, it doesn’t exist.”
A multitude of health problems result from this lifestyle. “We know that supersizing America is very bad for heart disease and diabetes,” said Carmen A. Puliafito, dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “Diabetes in America is just exploding. Basically a disease called adult-onset diabetes – type 2 diabetes – is moving younger and younger. This is a real warning signal for us.”
Sixty percent of children who develop type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese, according to national studies. Besides diabetes, other results of being overweight include high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which are precursors to heart disease; problems with joints; and an increase in some types of cancer, among others.
“We have a consumer-driven society, but we have a culture of neglect,” said Elizabeth G. Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. “We have so many choices, but I think we fail as parents and as educators in helping our young people understand and make healthy lifestyle choices.”
School systems and communities can take steps to better educate children about nutrition and to create an environment where exercise is valued, but parents need to take the first steps to “pay attention to what their children are eating, and what example they set in their own lifestyles,” said Tom Miller, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Physicians, too, need to engage their young patients and families in preventing obesity. “One of the things we discovered at L.A. Care is that physicians weren’t comfortable talking to families and asking the right questions,” said Howard A. Kahn, CEO of L.A. Care Health Plan. L.A. Care created a training module to help physicians, and 400 attended the first session.
The annual panel discussion was sponsored by the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, LAC+USC Healthcare Network, COPE Health Solutions and the Keck School of Medicine.
Latest stories
- Most Low-Income Children Keep Health Insurance Despite Premium Hike February 10, 2012 11:43 AM
- Ray Irani, Michael Waterman Elected to NAE February 10, 2012 10:35 AM
- MSW@USC Student to Compete in 2012 Paralympics February 10, 2012 9:22 AM
-
For Journalists »
-
USC in the News
for 2/8/2012 »-
The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
-
-
Campus News
- Capital Connections
- USC faculty, staff and alumni in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento
- In Print
- New and recent books written or edited by USC faculty and staff
- Family Matters
- Achievements and awards
- Obituaries