AMA Recommends 4-Stage Approach to Treatment of Childhood Obesity

Advice from IMHO child abusers.

"A 4-stage approach to treatment of childhood obesity is recommended by the American Medical Association (AMA), according to a review for primary care clinicians in the July 1 issue of the American Family Physician. The study authors note that many of these recommendations for treatment and prevention can be carried out by family clinicians."

You can bet that each stage includes a transfer of money to the doc.

Don't fall for it.

"'Childhood obesity has become so severe that diseases that once affected only adults are now appearing in children,' writes Goutham Rao, MD, from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 'The long-term implications of this epidemic are extremely serious. Obese children are much more likely than children of healthy weight to become obese adults.'

The statistics are alarming, with 'overweight' youth (those with age-adjusted and sex-adjusted body mass index [BMI] above the 95th percentile, which is equivalent to the 'obese' classification for adults) consisting of 13.9% of children 2 to 5 years old, 18.8% of children 6 to 11 years old, and 17.4% of adolescents and teenagers 12 to 19 years old.

Although type 2 diabetes in children was rare 2 decades ago, it now accounts for nearly one half of all new cases of diabetes among children in some settings. In adults, correlates of obesity include not only type 2 diabetes but also hypertension, osteoarthritis, gout, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, and biliary tract disease as well as cancers of the colon, breast (in postmenopausal women), endometrium, and esophagus.

Recognizing the scarcity of practical strategies available to primary care clinicians to combat the problem of childhood obesity, the AMA recently convened an expert panel to review evidence about how best to manage and prevent obesity and to write a series of reports."

And where have these experts and geniuses been all along that they are now "recognizing the scarcity of practical strategies"?

BTW, their new 4-stage strategy is not so practical and I predict will not work.

It is the stuff of moronity.