More U.S. children suffer chronic health problems

This is an article documenting a really bad approach to problem-solving.

"The number of U.S. children with chronic health problems such as obesity has soared in the past four decades, foreshadowing increases in adult disability and public health-care spending, researchers said on Tuesday."

This is not at all true IF we refuse to pay for the bad choices people make.

Each of these problems is almost certainly a matter of choice, caused by:

"More time in front of the television and use of other electronic media, decreased physical activity, increased time spent indoors, increased consumption of fast foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, and changes in parenting are all likely to blame, the researchers said...

In the early 1970s, about 5 percent of children ages 5 to 18 were obese, compared to about 18 percent now, the researchers said. Asthma rates are estimated at 9 percent among these children, doubling since the 1980s, they said."

Their conclusion?

"'The expanding epidemics of child and adolescent chronic health conditions will likely lead to major increases in disability among young and then older adults in the next several decades, with major increases in public expenditures for health care and income support,' the researchers wrote...

They based their estimates on government data and previously published research in scientific journals."

In other words, the conclusion is based on the mistaken approaches of the past.

What to do?

"'One of the most important messages is that we really need to focus on prevention,' said Steven Gortmaker of the Harvard School of Public Health, who worked on the report.

'Genetic bases have been described for obesity, asthma and ADHD. Nonetheless, gene pool changes cannot explain the recent dramatic growth of these conditions,' the researchers wrote, pointing instead to a host of behavioral and environmental changes.

Gortmaker said while prevention sounds simple -- eating a more healthful diet, getting more exercise and cutting down on TV -- making it happen is not."

Right.

Two reasons.

The first is that all expert diet advice is wrong and impossible. Once fixed, this will account for overweight/obesity and their related disorders (e.g., diabetes, asthma).

The second is that we keep rewarding bad behavior by paying for it, instead of rewarding responsible people who are concerned about their fitness and are doing something about it.

Not bad places to begin are:

• cessation of all sick care payments for treating the calorically rich,
• a moratorium on all medical expert diet advice,
• prosecution of all diet experts who make impossible diet claims (including their facilitators, e.g., publishers, media),
• prosecution of all fitness experts who make impossible fitness claims (including their facilitators, e.g., publishers, media),
• a halt to all bariatric surgery (except in the cases of impending death),
• removal of weight loss medications from the marketplace and
• going after parents who abuse their children nutritionally:

"In many children, chronic health conditions continue into adulthood and can be expected to raise health care costs while driving down quality of life, the researchers said."

In responsible circles, this approach is known as accountability.