A Most Dangerous Foe
By Pete Draovitch, MS, ATC, PT, CSCS

The most dangerous opponent for the virtual athlete is not a simulated Ray Lewis, a cyber Barry Bonds or even a digitized martial arts master. No, the most dangerous opponent is unfortunately quite real - sedentary lifestyle obesity.

Alarming statistics continue to surface daily about the health and wellness of America's youth. In 1997, Pediatrics Magazine reported children today are more likely to be obese, inactive and prone to develop costly, life-threatening diseases later in life when compared to 20 years ago. A July 2000 issue of Newsweek reported the number of American kids who are overweight has more than doubled since 1960. The current figures show 22% of all African-American and Latin children are overweight, while 12% of all White children fall into this category. In the 1997 publication Fat-Proof Your Child, author Joe Piscatella states that on average a 12-year-old weighs 11 pounds more that a 12-year-old in 1973, but they don't measure up on tests of strength and endurance. The excess weight is serving no constructive purpose.

The ramifications of sedentary lifestyle obesity are threefold.

First is the physical cost. The long term effects of a sedentary lifestyle include heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer and stress related disorders. In the Surgeon General's findings on physical fitness, the major conclusion was that physical activity reduces the risk of cardiac heart disease, hypertension, colon cancer, and diabetes mellitus. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated, 'Excess weight should be regarded not as a cosmetic problem, but as an important, chronic degenerative disease that debilitates individuals.'

The second ramification sedentary lifestyle obesity is financial. Costs of obesity related diseases have been annually escalating and continue to be a continual societal burden.

The Health Care Financing Administration, in 1998, reported that health care spending is expected to leap to $2.1 trillion in the year 2007. This would account for 16.6% of the nation's gross domestic product, up from 13.6% in 1993. The alarming fact here is that 16.6 cents of each dollar made in the United States will go toward health care costs.

The third ramification of sedentary lifestyle obesity, low self-esteem, should not be underestimated. Harter, in 1990's Competence Considered, documents physical appearance as the self-component most closely associated with self-esteem across the life span in the United States. Psychologists have long agreed that youth self-esteem problems are often at the core of a host of social ills including, but not limited to, behavioral problems, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy and crime. King, in the Journal of School Health in 1997, states 'children begin to develop their opinion of themselves in their second six years of life.' This is about the same age at which children start becoming heavily involved in video games.

Some try to pass off obesity as an inevitable result of family genetics, but environment and culture play a substantial role. Regarding Body Mass Index, Bouchard and Perusse, in the International Journal of Obesity in 1997, report that genetics plays a 25% role in body composition, culture plays a 30% role, and non-transmissible or inability to trace certain factors plays a 45% role. In summary, the location and number of fat cells may be genetically determined, but their size is influenced by environment and behavior.

Although polls have shown children (and parents) are aware of behaviors necessary for developing a healthy lifestyle, translating knowledge into action is still the greatest challenge. Dozens of organizations have introduced programs to get kids fit, but most have failed because they don't incorporate the governing motivators or advertising appeal to children. Parents, as always, have the greatest responsibility. Step One is to recognize obesity as Surgeon General Koop says 'a chronic, degenerative disease' likely leading to more serious issues.

Fortunately, this disease is very treatable.