Word: livered
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ills overweight kids risk (see chart), the two that may be the most complex--and thus earn a lot of new research attention--concern breakdowns in the function of the liver and pancreas. Mess with these organs, and you mess with some very fundamental metabolic systems that govern how well the body recruits and uses energy--a systemwide disruption that causes systemwide harm...
...from being inert, excess fat, researchers now know, is actually an active participant in the body's biological ballet--particularly if it's visceral fat, which can surround and even suffuse organs like the liver. Relatively shallow subcutaneous fat, which sits just under the skin, imposes a weight burden on the body but remains biologically dormant--more a repository for energy than anything else. Visceral-fat cells can secrete hormones and cytokines that help control inflammation and guide energy use by all the body's other cells. Normally this regulation of cellular fueling is maintained by a well-balanced relay...
Even more alarming to doctors are the changes that excess weight can wreak on the liver. It's this organ, after all, that orchestrates the breakdown and distribution of fats and sugars from the diet. When too much of either comes in, the liver starts to keep some of the excess for itself, converting sugars from soft drinks and the ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup into fat that remains within its tissues...
Many overweight children already show abnormal levels of liver enzymes, and fully one-third suffer from fatty liver, a condition in which the organ becomes streaked with fat. "I worry about the outcome of these children 10 to 20 years from now," says Dr. Miriam Vos, a pediatrician and liver expert at Emory University. "In adults, we know that 3% to 5% of those with fatty-liver disease will progress on to cirrhosis or to an advanced stage where you might need a liver transplant." While not all cases reach such a dangerous state, Vos notes that in about...
During the early stages of these liver changes, however, there is hope. Vos' work shows that just as fat can be recruited into the liver, it can also be coaxed out, as long as the child eats properly and stays active enough to keep calorie input in line with what's burned off. Kumar says the key to reversing liver abnormalities--not to mention all the additional burdens excess fat places on the heart, bones and other organs--is to detect signs of weight gain in kids early. "We don't want to get to the point where children...