Obesity and Natural Therapies

Homeopathy offers treatments for various aspects of obesity

Homeopathic medicines can help you lose weight by improving digestion, elimination, and metabolism. But the medicines need to be individually prescribed, based on your own unique pattern of symptoms.

Childhood Obesity

Children have high energy requirements because they are growing. A varied and nutritious diet is essential for their development. However, like adults, if they take in more energy in the form of food than they use up, the extra energy is stored in their bodies as fat.

Obesity in children and adolescents is a serious issue with many health and social consequences that often continue into adulthood. Implementing prevention programs and getting a better understanding of treatment for youngsters is important to controlling the obesity epidemic.

Many parents are rightly concerned about their child's weight and how it affects them. They look for specific answers for prevention and treatment options. Unfortunately, the state of the science is a lot less precise than we would like. Are kids too concerned about their weight? What are the best strategies for prevention? What treatments work over a long time? Researchers are trying to answer those and many other questions. In many cases, common sense works well.

In situations where there are serious health, psychological or social problems, parents should seek advice from a professional fully qualified homeopath or other natural therapist..

Obesity is a a serious problem

Children who are overweight tend to grow up into adults who are overweight. They therefore have a higher risk of developing serious health problems in later life, including heart attack and stroke, type 2 diabetes, bowel cancer, and high blood pressure. The risk of health problems increases the more overweight a person becomes.

Being overweight as a child can also cause psychological distress. Teasing about their appearance affects children’s confidence and self-esteem and can lead to isolation and depression.

The number of overweight and obese children in the UK has risen steadily over the past 20 years. This is now a major health concern.

Why are Children Becoming Obese?

The number of obese children has doubled in recent years. The development of fatness in children is disturbing because it causes ill-health and is very difficult to reverse. Overweight children are very likely to be overweight adults. Very few children become overweight because of an underlying medical problem. Children are more likely to be overweight if their parents are obese. But genetic factors are thought to be less significant than the fact that families tend to share eating and activity habits.

In other words, most children put on excess weight because their lifestyles include an unhealthy diet and a lack of physical activity.It is certainly easier than ever before for children to become overweight. High- calorie foods, such as fast food and confectionery, are abundant, relatively cheap and heavily promoted specifically at children.

Exercise is no longer a regular part of everyone’s day – some children never walk or cycle to school, or play any kind of sport. And it is not unusual for children to spend hours in front of a television or computer. The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (2000) found that 40-69% of children over the age of six spend less than the recommended minimum of one hour a day doing moderate intensity physical activity.

What is a healthy weight for a child?

Parents may find it difficult to tell whether their child has temporary "puppy fat" or is genuinely overweight. In adults, a simple formula (the body mass index, or BMI) is used to work out whether a person is the right weight for their height.

However, BMI alone is not an appropriate measure for children - it has to be used alongside charts that take into account the child’s rate of growth, sex and age - and is best interpreted with the help of your GP, health visitor, practice nurse or dietician.

It is possible to measure the proportion of a child’s weight that is made up of fat. Generally speaking, a child’s weight is classed as obese when their body weight is more than 25% fat in boys and 32% in girls.