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Nov 21, 2008 -- New warning about childhood obesity, new iPill development

A new report from the American Heart Association suggests that obese and overweight children can have the arteries of a middle-aged person. That in turn can put them in danger of having heart disease or a stroke in their 20s!

There are many reasons why children are packing on the pounds. For one, the calorie count is way up for kids. But it's not just fast food that's to blame. When Clark gets a Happy Meal for his son, it comes with the option of apple slices instead of fries. Many restaurants are likewise offering healthy choices.

There's also the issue of lack of exercise. Kids used to just play all the time outside, but today it seems like they're being carted around from one structured activity to the next. It's our responsibility as parents to see that our kids are active. Clark often brings his children to a soccer field to play -- even though he's not very good at the game.

Meanwhile, in a separate health-related development, Phillips has come up with an intelligent pill. The so-called "iPill" contains a microprocessor in it that can release medication at a specific spot in the GI tract. The goal is to eliminate the "chemo phenomenon," where you make a person's whole body sick just to target illness in one part of the body.

The iPill contains a wireless transmitter that senses acidity and body temperature to determine where to pinpoint the medication. Some of its expected uses will be for colon cancer treatment and GI tract disorders -- if Phillips can convince the pharmaceutical companies to buy into the technology.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a simple English explanation of the iPill. The real shocker so far is that the cost is $1,000 per pill. Once it's in mass production, however, that price would come down to about $10 per pill. Talk about the economy of scale!

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  • Childhood Obesity
    A large contributor are school lunches. My daughter is in kindergarten and has the option of chocolate milk, pizza all served with tater tots and a cookie. It is possible for a 50 lb child to eat up a day's worth of calories in 1 meal. McDonald's is nothing compared to the school cafeteria. I have to restrict my daughter to 2 cafeteria lunches a week.

    Also, another contributor is the lack of recess in schools. Kids need to get out and exercise. When I was a kid recess was 2 times a day at 15 min a pop. Some schools have eliminated recess.
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