Poor diet, inactivity and obesity believed to have caused hypertension for millions of under-19s around the world
The rate of children and teenagers living with high blood pressure globally has nearly doubled because of a toxic combination of unhealthy diets, mass inactivity and soaring levels of obesity, according to the largest review of its kind.
Experts said 114 million children who have developed hypertension even before reaching adulthood were facing potentially deadly and lifelong harm, including cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and a myriad of serious health complications.
The prevalence of high blood pressure in children and teenagers under 19 has increased to 6.2%, rising from 3.2% in the space of just 20 years. The findings, based on a meta analysis of data from 96 studies involving more than 400,000 children across 21 countries, were published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal.
And when climate change is solved, it will only be reported as increased gas prices and laid off oilfield workers.
Global rates of childhood hunger have seen a general downward trend. Unfortunately, the article doesnt list which countries these increases are seen most dramatically in - but my guess is that this is intentional, and the increase is seen mostly in countries where rates of poverty and hunger are dropping. Fewer people are starving to death because of improvements in global food delivery, and that means that they have more access to potato chips and chocolate cake. Certainly increasing childhood obesity isn’t a good thing - but it is better than it was before.
THIS IS PROGRESS!!! We should CELEBRATE THIS! The perfect is not the enemy of the good. We aren’t where we want to be, but we are further along the path, and we should be happy about that.