Removing Recess was Done With Positive Intent, but the Consequences on the Health of our Children, Including Blood Clots, Should be Reconsidered and Reprioritized.
Sheboygan, Wisconsin (PRWEB) November 16, 2016 -- Dr. Mirza created a website, http://www.preventdvtnow.com to help educate people about blood clot risk factors, prevention, and recovery from DVT/PE including kids who are at greater risk.
Schools around our nation continue to cut recess and other time slots that previously allowed kids to be active. The goal is improved academic scores, but the cost might be worsening health scores for children and the early onset of illnesses that were once unheard of in kids.
Extended sitting is harmful to everyone. It increases the risk of obesity, type II diabetes and its many complications, blood clots (also called deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and pulmonary embolism (PE)). Diseases like this were once very rare in children, but in recent years, they have increased at an alarming rate. According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past thirty years.
The increase in obesity also signals an increase in type II diabetes. And for kids, that’s extra troubling. The need to inject insulin happens “three times faster in children than in adults,” says Silva Arslanian, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. If diabetes isn’t properly controlled, kidney disease, heart disease, eye disease, and high blood pressure can develop. These kids also have a greater chance of heart attacks and strokes once they reach adulthood.
During a three-year study, the Diabetes Prevention Program found that weight loss and increased physical activity reduced the development of type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. At a time when obesity is increasing at a staggering rate, the findings of that study make removing active time slots from the school days of children and teens even more concerning.
In schools without recess, kids may sit for six to seven hours each day with little opportunity to move enough to counter the negative side-effects of sitting. Even for adults, sitting for longer than two hours at a time is not recommended. Some children wiggle and squirm in their seats at the risk of getting in trouble for not sitting still, but it isn’t enough to counter the negative health risks of that much sitting. And typically, those same kids head home at the end of the school day with two to four hours of homework which requires that they sit even more.
Everyone wants children to grow into happy, healthy, and well-adjusted adults. It takes the creation of healthy habits in children to allow that to happen, and that includes learning to integrate activity into their daily lives. Removing recess was done with positive intent, but the consequences on the health of our children should be reconsidered and re-prioritized.
To learn if you or your child are at greater risk for DVT/PE, find out more about preventing this life-threatening condition, and gain access to a free video series on DVT/PE and silent killers, visit http://www.preventdvtnow.com.
Mansoor Mirza MD. FACP, Travel Medicine Inc., http://preventdvtnow.com/, +1 (920) 343-6870, [email protected]
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