Word: livers
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...than it is to get young patients to eat better and exercise more. And then there's the possible cascade effect. "We can add statins to help overweight children," says Ludwig of Children's Hospital Boston. "But what about the next problem that comes up - insulin resistance and fatty liver. Are we going to keep adding drug after drug? That possibility just makes me want...
...most improve within a week. About 20% see no progress at all, but the company hasn't received reports of negative effects and it says it didn't see any in its earlier clinical trials. Vet-Stem is now testing stem cells to treat kidney disease in cats and liver disease in dogs...
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...