Rising risk of obesity

Obesity is one of the growing concerns in the world today. With a largely passive lifestyle and addiction to unhealthy processed and junk food, children are more susceptible putting on unhealthy weight than ever before. The side effects of obesity have been revealing themselves as researches are focused on them. According to latest studies, obesity in children can be a major cause that can trigger psoriasis. Teenagers who contract psoriasis stand at a greater risk of having high cholesterol levels.

The Study

As per statistics, psoriases effects more than seven million people in America and many of these people have been obese during childhood. The study, which revealed a major connection between psoriasis and obesity, was conducted by scientists at the department of research and evaluation, Kaiser Permanente South California at Pasadena. The results were authored by Corinna Koebnick, who is an author and a researcher involved in the study. Although psoriasis is a skin condition that causes inflammation of the skin, it has been known as an influencing factor for heart diseases. The study found that heart was at a higher risk when people with psoriasis were obese and had high cholesterol levels in their childhood. The author also suggested that they would continue with the research and study youth, especially obese ones, in order to find a closer relation between psoriasis and cardiovascular ill health.

Study statistics

The number of people on whom the study was conducted was 710,949. Care was taken to ensure that the group had a diverse set of people in terms of race, region and sex. Conclusions drawn based on the study revealed that children who were obese were 40% more at risk of contracting psoriasis. As the level of obesity increases, the risks were found to increase correspondingly. Children who were highly obese stood 80% more chance of being inflicted with psoriasis. The study also revealed that obese children would experience psoriasis with more times more severity than children with normal weight would. Further, the risk of higher liver enzymes and high cholesterol increased 4% to 6% in children who had psoriasis, irrespective of their weight.

Other side effects of psoriasis

Studies regarding the ill effects of obesity have been in progress since a very long time. Other than the most recent revealing about increased risk of psoriasis, obesity has been known to be the cause of a myriad of other health ailments. Studies have also found that children who were obese suffered poor mental health. Low self-esteem is another major blow of obesity. Diabetes, heart ailments, pain in the joints and strokes are some of the few side effects of obesity.

Child obesity statistics in America

Despite the studies have been conducted and awareness drives that have been held to educate people about harmful effects, the trend of childhood obesity is on an alarming increase. In the last three decades, obesity in children has multiplied more than thrice. There are 20% obese children in the age group of 6 to 11 and 18% in the age group of 12 to 19.