Leading experts working to address childhood obesity gathered for U.S. News & World Report’s Combating Childhood Obesity summit presented by Texas Children’s Hospital, a national leader among U.S. pediatric hospitals, on May 16, 2019 in Houston.
| WASHINGTON, May 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading experts working to address childhood obesity gathered for U.S. News & World Report’s Combating Childhood Obesity summit presented by Texas Children’s Hospital, a national leader among U.S. pediatric hospitals, on May 16, 2019 in Houston. The event convened top medical professionals, hospital executives, pediatricians, community health leaders and advocates for a series of conversations exploring the causes and complications of the obesity epidemic – and its possible solutions.
The daylong conference featured as its keynote speakers two longtime pioneers in the field: George Bray, M.D., Boyd Professor Emeritus of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, and William Dietz, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. “This unrelenting epidemic is one of the biggest public health challenges facing today’s children – and tomorrow’s adults,” said Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News. “U.S. News will continue casting a spotlight on the pressing health issues affecting our nation’s communities.” The summit’s overarching takeaway argued that childhood obesity should be treated as a disease. It is not the result of a lack of willpower from children and their parents – but owes to the complex interplay between genetics and environmental factors. A five-year study on gastric bypass surgery by Thomas Inge, M.D., Ph.D., director of adolescent bariatric surgery at Children’s Hospital Colorado and lead author on the paper, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and discussed at the conference. Dr. Inge presented his findings showing that adolescents who undergo gastric bypass surgery lose as much weight as those who have the operation as adults and are more likely to see a reversal of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure in the years following surgery. The key takeaway from his results suggest that operating earlier on teens who have obesity may prove more beneficial for some than waiting until adulthood. In a panel analyzing the physiological factors conspiring against weight loss, Kevin Hall, Ph.D., chief of the integrated physiology section at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, debuted new study results exploring the role of processed foods on weight and eating patterns. His research published in the Cell Metabolism found that eating a diet made up of ultra-processed foods causes people to overeat and gain weight compared to eating a minimally processed diet. Photos from the national summit can be viewed here. For more information about the event, please visit usnews.com and join the conversation on Twitter via @USNHOT using #USNChildObesity. About U.S. News & World Report About Texas Children’s Hospital
SOURCE U.S. News & World Report |
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