When a doctor told Annie she was "morbidly obese," the 17-year-old was frightened into action. It wasn't the first warning that the 236-pound teenager got. Her own mother had cautioned her that she could die prematurely because of the weight. At that point, Annie says, "It was do or die." She turned her life around by losing 75 pounds, changing her eating habits, and incorporating physical exercise into her routine. Without her mother's help and support, Annie says, she couldn't have done it.

Annie isn't the only child in in the United States endangering her health by being overweight. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of overweight children and teens has reached epidemic proportions, tripling in the last two decades for most age groups to almost 19 percent for 6 to 11-year-olds. Along with the extra weight, young people are developing diseases that, until recently, were more common among older adults in their parents' and grandparents' generation. Pediatricians now see high blood pressure, heart disease, and other adult illnesses in their young patients.

Medical facilities, schools, and community groups are trying innovative ways to reverse this deadly trend.

Reporter Laurie Udesky shows some of the methods they're using. In this audio report, she interviews Dr. Cam-Tu Tran, a pediatrician and director of San Francisco General Hospital's Healthy Lifestyles Clinic, which treats overweight children and adolescents, and Carey Kozuszek, an occupational therapist also working at San Francisco General. Kozuszek tailors programs for each patient based on their day-to-day routines and whether or not they can safely exercise outside.

Udesky also interviews Renda Davis, assistant sports director of Berkeley Youth Alternatives, a community organization in Berkeley, California that teaches children about nutrition and physical activity.

Click to listen to Consumer Health Interactive in-depth audio report.

If you'd like to read the radio script, click here.

Digital Audio Team

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First published April 12, 2004
Last updated June 28, 2007
Copyright © 2004 Consumer Health Interactive