By Rebecca Feldhaus
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-925608.mp3
Murray, KY – Standing 6-feet-tall at one-hundred forty pounds, Caleb Dehne is a very slender, handsome young man. A Murray State music student, Dehne is currently busy with practices for the school's production of Sondheim's Into the Woods, in which he'll play Jack. He's confident, optimistic and easy to talk to. This, however, wasn't always the case. When Dehne was a child, he was overweight. Dehne says, after he was cast as the Genie in a summer production of Aladdin Jr. at 14, he realized something had to change.
"Well the boy who was playing Aladdin was like, You know when you do this, you're not going to have a shirt on.' Oh my God, I'm dancing up there, and jiggling around and it's just going to be disgusting and people are going to be sick from me shaking around on stage."
So, he decided to lose weight. For every meal, he researched portion size and went to the gym every day for a strenuous workout. He admits it was not a healthy way to lose weight. After his first push over the summer, the pounds continued to drop throughout his sophomore year of high school. Overall, Dehne lost forty pounds.
Dehne's childhood weight fits in to the startling statistics about children who are overweight and obese. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines an overweight child as having a Body Mass Index or BMI in the 85th to 95th percentile. Obesity is defined as having a BMI in the 95th percentile or above. Medical professionals use growth charts calculating stature, weight, sex and age to determine how healthy or unhealthy a child is.
Clinical Director of the Pediatric Weight Management Clinic at Vanderbilt Hospital, Dr. Greg Plemmons has seen many obese children. He says before he started working with the clinic, he didn't realize the magnitude of the issue.
"I had no idea of the severity of kids we would see, I mean I knew that there was a problem, but I had no idea that we would see you know you're average overweight child, but we were seeing children that were severely overweight."
From 1963 to 2008 Obese and overweight children have overall become a more common occurrence in the United States, according to Information from a study on the subject from the Center for Disease Control. Obesity occurrence in Children ages 2-5 doubled from 5 percent from 1971-1974 to 10.4 percent in 2007. Age groups charting 6-11-year-olds as well as 12-19-year-olds both went up by over 10 percent from the 60's to present day. The CDC sites 17 percent of children in the US are obese. Information in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine shows children in states including Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois are more than twice as likely to be obese than their counterparts in Oregon, the state ranked lowest for childhood obesity.
Director of the Weight Management and Wellness center in Pittsburg Dr. Goutham Rao has a few theories on the matter. He conducted his own study in 2002 in which he offered 6th graders examples of soda. There were some in cups, and in bottles, and he asked them to pick the one they generally buy at the store or fast food chain. Then he removed the visual stimuli and had the same kids take a glass and pour the amount of soda they thought would satisfy them. They poured a much lower amount. Rao explains his reasoning.
"I think the large bottles and the way that soft drinks are marketed to children is distorting their perception of serving size, which is a real problem. And secondly I think the age-old concept, You'll drink or eat whatever is put in front of you,' also applies to these children."
The cycle of illness contributing to obesity and vice versa plagues professionals. In a new study that came out this week, doctors researched a specific virus called the Adenovirus 36 or AD 36 and the prevalence of the strain in children who are obese and non-obese. Of the 124 children tested, 19 children had the antibody for AD 36, proving they had, at one time, had the virus. Of those 19 children with the AD 36 antibody 15 of them were obese; a vast majority.
Dr. Rao says though the study is intriguing, it hasn't proven causality. He says most of the children with the virus were Latino, so a cultural or genetic factor might be the culprit. Rao says many things can disrupt the way the brain perceives hunger and appetite, possibly causing someone to eat more than they otherwise might.
"Environmental and chemical agents, as well as viral agents have been implicated in that, so BPA which is found in plastic bottles, though it's being phased out, is another chemical substance in our environment that may disrupt pathways."
With the often negative attention that comes with being overweight, for doctors and families, it's a delicate balance of challenges and support. Dr. Plemmons explains.
"As the number of obesity sky-rocketed, we also sort of see that the number of eating disorders and underweight patients grows too, so we try to promote a healthy body image."