Sad State of Children's Health

Fat Kids Have The Arteries Of 45-Year-Olds, Study Shows
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MARILYNN MARCHIONE | November 11, 2008 09:10 PM EST |

NEW ORLEANS — Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities that greatly raise their risk of heart disease, say doctors who used ultrasound tests to take a peek inside.
"As the old saying goes, you're as old as your arteries are," said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children's Hospital in Kansas City, who led one of the studies. "This is a wake-up call."
The studies were reported Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference.
About a third of American children are overweight and one-fifth are obese. Many parents think that "baby fat" will melt away as kids get older. But research increasingly shows that fat kids become fat adults, with higher risks for many health problems.
"Obesity is not benign in children and adolescents," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a former heart association president and cardiologist at the University of Colorado-Denver. It is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended cholesterol-lowering drugs for some kids, he noted.
Raghuveer wanted to see if early signs of damage could be documented. She and colleagues used painless ultrasound tests to measure the thickness of the wall of a major neck artery in 70 children, ages 10 to 16. Almost all had abnormal cholesterol and many were obese.
No one knows how thick a 10-year-old's artery should be, since they're not regularly checked for signs of heart disease, so researchers used tables for 45-year-olds, who often do get such exams.
The kids' "vascular age" was about 30 years older than their actual age, she found.
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A separate study tied childhood obesity to abnormal enlargement of the left atrium, one of the chambers of the heart. Enlargement is a known risk factor for heart disease, stroke and heart rhythm problems.
Julian Ayer, a researcher at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney Australia, did ultrasound exams on 991 seemingly healthy children ages 5 to 15. He saw a clear link between rising weight and size of the left atrium.
A third study by Dr. Walter Abhayaratna of Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, also used ultrasound tests and found impairment in the heart's ability to relax between beats in children who were overweight or obese.
The study involved the first 150 children participating in a larger community-based study.
Earlier research he helped conduct found more rigid arteries in such children _ a possible sign of plaque deposits starting to form.
"Even at this young age of 10, you can have children who have got arterial stiffness who are comparable to 30- and 40-year-olds," he said.
Dr. Michael Schloss, a New York University heart disease prevention specialist, said the evidence shows obesity is more than a cosmetic issue for children.
"If you've seen what's on the menu for most school lunches, these findings are no surprise," he said. "The time has come to seriously deal with the issue of childhood obesity and physical inactivity on a governmental and parental level

Past week

I see that I have not posted anything in a week. It has been pretty busy with life I guess. I am now trying to find a Cookie Manager for our Brownie Troop. I hopefully will find a brave soul.

I have continued with the VO2 max and 3 x 5 program over the last week. Today starts the 3rd week. I really feel pretty good, I can tell that I have lost some body fat. The nice thing is that I have not lost strength. I added reps to my heavy day on Military Presses and Squats. I hope that it progesses this week and next. I have not decided if I will change programs or take a back off week and move up in weight for VO2 Max. It really depends on how I feel.

The group workouts continue. We had a good group on Saturday. Our focus this week was learning the snatch. Everyone got it down pretty quickly and we are going to have a good workout this next week. I have my evil plan ready for the Thanksgiving/Christmas Holiday Feasts. If you want to eat, you will have to work!

I went out and did my workout after posting the intro. I could push a little harder for more reps, but I am really focusing on form. I am really locking the kettlebell down at the top of the snatch and sucking the shoulder down and locking the elbow out. I feel that the form is more important than the increase in reps. I am going to hit 50 sets on Thursday. I will stay at 7 until the lockdown is there for every rep. It does slow me down for now.

How to Snatch

Overtraining?

I am on my second week of VO2 Max and loving it. I think that it is a great program to cycle through my training regime. I usually have a long term goal that I am shooting for and train throughout the year to reach that goal. I try not to skip around to much as I travel along that path. This year was a little different. I was trying to take the Beast Challenge and realized that maybe it was not in my best interest. I like to train heavy, but there is a point that where the outcome is not worth the troubles that occur. When doing Clean and presses with the 88 this summer, I ended up pulling something. It would not have worried me, but it was in the area of earlier injuries. I do not want to cause more damage to my body then absolutely neccessary.

I hit 41 this weekend and my long, long term goal is to be in as good of shape as Jack LaLanne at 94. It is a long way off, but that is the ultimate goal. I am working towards the RKC-FMS and trying to see if I can fix some issues. If I can, maybe I will get the Beast up for a Clean and Press.

Going back to the VO2 Max program. I think that is is a valuable training protocol. After 2 weeks, I feel a difference. It might be all in my head, but I seem to have more "go" power. I have been reading a lot of posts on www.Dragondoor.com about people trying to hit 100 sets of VO2 Max. More power to them. i do not think that it is where I need to go. There are quite a few people shooting for more sets that are over training and getting injured and ill. The recommended sets appears to be 40-50 sets and I do not think that 60 is to excessive. I think that you have to have a plan and a goal for your training. What would the purpose of 100 sets be? If it is just to do it, what are the risks versus benefits?

I guess I am just old now. I like the 40-50 sets and feel that at this point in my life, it is all I need. I have been down the path of over training to the point of sickness and injury. I spent 4 years away from training due to an injury. I was injured because I was stupid. I did not understand periodization. I did not realize that there was an ebb and flow to the body and to training. I went full out each and every time for years.

Maybe it was a good thing. It made me smarter about training. I started to search for better ways to reach my goals. That lead me to the RKC and Pavel. Truly life changing.

I truly believe in training smarter and harder and protecting my body.

Good week

I went from the ETK style workout to the VO2 Max this week. What a change. I only hit 24 sets on my first night, partly becuase it was 10:30 at night. It was a little intimidating at first even though I only had to hit 7 reps a cycle. The next day it felt like I was hit by a truck. I coulod really feel my posterior chain and core. I worked on 3 sets of 3-5 the next night to loosen up. It was the light night and I only used double 24kgs. I practiced squats, clean and presses and pullups.

I went ahead and hit 40 sets on my second workout. I really felt pretty strong and was not as intimidated. It went really well and I actually enjoyed it. I feel really good today and have lots of energy. I am going to skip the workout onight, which is supposed to be 32kgs for strength. It is Trick or Treat time. I will hit it tomorrow instead.

Time to take the kids out and eat badly. I can't wait.

Don't mess with this lady!

This lady decided to not be a victim. I always like to teach people to take charge of the situation. This lady listens to her inner voice and keeps watch out of the corner of her eye. That is what helps her react as fast as she does.


Little Woman Owns Creepy Elevator Guy - Watch more free videos

So much to learn

I love to learn about everything I can. I read just about anything that I come across, watch videos, train with different people and just watch people. I really think that the more you know the better off you are. The amount of knowledge in the RKC community is tremendous. It would be possible to pretty much do nothing but communicate with, read blogs and hang out on forums. I feel a need to narrow my focus in several areas of my journey.

I am in the process of reading Plato's Republic, Pavel's Beyond Bodybuilding, Warrior Diet and lots of studies that I have come across. In the video area, I am watching Kenneth Jay's Advanced Strength Strategies, Pavel's DVDs as well as several others. Granted, I am able to only do some of this in small bits, sure is nice to have a book in each room.. But even small bits is better than nothing as you sometimes get more in the small bites of time.

The problem is that the knowledge you gain has to be able to be used or it is not worth the effort it took to find it. I think that you have to decide what direction that you want to go and learn about that area and experiment, train, play with that knowledge until you own it. I really like the direction that the RKC is headed with the new snatch test and VO2 max. I think that I need to focus on that direction with my training for a little while. I have been doing a little bit of playing with this idea by going back to the ETK. It is time to really turn it on.

I have decided to focus on some other areas as well. I have been super focused on my business and will continue to do so. I am throwing some moderation in however. I am pretty much done answering calls, and emails after a certain time of the day as well as letting weekends be more relaxed. I need to focus on my martial arts in certain areas. I really want to look at the grappling aspects for a little while.

I think that by focusing on what I need to do in these several areas will help me increase my knowledge in an easier path. I will be able to learn more in those chosen areas this way. It will allow me to dig deeper than I would just following every lead or meandering thought.

The nice thing is that all of these things actually dovetail quite nicely. I drive past some really incredible BJJ schools that have classes during my lunch breaks, the RKC fits in well with the combatives and the business continues to grow with the relaxing of the intensity.

There are some other things that I am interested in learning and doing, but they will have their time in the near future.

Zombies

I kettlebell and train in combatives to be safe from Zombies! Guess what two of the best exercises for fighting Zombies is, swings and get ups.