Obesity Older Children Are At Increased Risk Of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Obesity Older Children Are At Increased Risk Of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease.
Obese older children are at increased imperil for developing the worrisome digestive infirmity known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), researchers from Kaiser Permanente in California report. In fact, bloody obese children have up to a 40 percent higher endanger of GERD, while those who are moderately obese have up to a 30 percent higher risk of developing it, compared with conventional weight children, researchers say.

So "Although we know that childhood obesity, especially outrageous obesity, comes with risks for serious health conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, our learning adds yet another condition to the list, which is GERD," said study lead author Corinna Koebnick, a digging scientist at Kaiser Permanente Southern California's Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena. While the causes of the long-standing digestive disease are not known, obesity appears to be one of them. "With the increasing spread of childhood obesity, GERD may become more and more of an issue".

GERD can undermine quality of story noting that the disease can cause chronic heartburn, nausea and the potential for respiratory problems such as persistent cough, redness of the larynx and asthma. GERD has already been linked to obesity in adults, many of whom are familiar with its intermittent heartburn resulting from liquor containing stomach acid that backs up into the esophagus. Untreated, GERD can development in chronic inflammation of the lining of the esophagus and, more rarely, to lasting damage, including ulcers and scarring.

About 10 percent of GERD patients also go on to promote a precancerous condition known as Barrett's esophagus, which in a poor minority will develop into cancer. Kaiser researchers noted that GERD that persists through adulthood increases the danger for esophageal cancer later in life.

Cancer of the esophagus is the fastest growing cancer in the United States, and is expected to false in frequency over the next 20 years. This extension may be partly due to the obesity epidemic.

The report is published in the July 9 online edition of the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity. For the Kaiser study, Koebnick's gang collected details on more than 690000 children aged 2 to 19 years old. These children were members of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California integrated salubriousness plan in 2007 and 2008.