Meet doctors who are getting kids going

Cape Town-140704-Doctors, Clint Cupido, Nasief van der Schyff and Tasneem Esack from Victoria Hospital have been working on childhood obesity and exercise in their spare time-Reporter-Esther-Photographer-Tracey Adams

Cape Town-140704-Doctors, Clint Cupido, Nasief van der Schyff and Tasneem Esack from Victoria Hospital have been working on childhood obesity and exercise in their spare time-Reporter-Esther-Photographer-Tracey Adams

Published Jul 23, 2014

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Cape Town - Obese children have the potential to become obese adults plagued with lifestyle diseases. This is why three Cape Town doctors have dedicated their free time to getting young people educated about and involved in sport and healthy living.

Doctors Nasief van der Schyff, Tasneem Esack and Clint Cupido are based at Victoria Hospital. For the first quarter of this year, the hospital admitted 187 patients with confirmed or suspected heart attacks.

Van der Schyff, 37, says the factors fuelling lifestyle diseases in the patients they see are poor diets, lack of physical activity and among the highest rates of smoking. Half of those who suffer heart attacks are diabetic, and 80 percent have high blood pressure.

According to the World Health Organisation, about 400 million people worldwide have diabetes. An estimated 90 percent of it is Type 2. Known as a lifestyle disease, one of the biggest factors is obesity.

“By the time the patients are admitted, it’s too late. We need to get them before they develop the diseases,” says Esack.

This is why the doctors have done their bit to educate the young and those who have fallen through the cracks.

Esack, 30, is the team doctor for Hamediehs Rugby Club which caters to teenagers from relatively low-income areas. “We recruit youngsters to give them an alternative,” says Esack. The aim is to teach them about getting exercise, eating properly and to stop smoking. This often proves difficult because the club doesn’t get much support.

“In our communities we have moms and dads who both work long hours, and can’t take children to activities,” says Esack. She adds that in the technological era, where everything else is more exciting, “we have to market sport and what they can get out of it to get the buy-in of parents and children.”

Cupido, 38, has been involved in sport since he was a teenager. For several years he used a community hall in the southern suburbs, and offered indoor sports including table tennis, volley ball, dancing and squash.

He had to close the club at the start of the year as the activities were run by volunteers who had to dig into their own pockets to hire the facilities.

“People are happy to pay R20 for a happy meal, but won’t pay membership fees for a club or the upkeep of sports facilities. We want instant gratification, but with sport, it’s a process. You must invest time and effort and reap the benefits later,” says Cupido.

He says if more money is not invested in promoting sport, the government will spend more on treating the symptoms of a sedentary lifestyle.

Van der Schyff is vice-chairman of the Tramway Football Club, and coaches the under-9 team. Based in Diep River, the club caters to a wide range of children. With several other community volunteers, they’re passionate about fighting childhood obesity and diabetes by promoting physical activity and steering children away fromdrugs and gangsterism.

Van der Schyff found there were a number of 8 and 9-year-olds who could not run or kick a ball. The development of their motor skills was impaired because they were never exposed to physical activities. After a year, they have progressed physically. And those, who on arrival battled with confidence, are now more self-assured.

The youngsters who were obese were referred to dieticians and paediatric doctors.

“Some of the children are very poor with absent parents. Others have minimal parental involvement. These are often the parents we see admitted to hospital with heart attacks and strokes.

“If you want to tackle this, there must be collective action,” says Van der Schyff.

This is why he pioneered the adult health and wellness programme at the soccer club. During the boys’ regular training, 80 family members were invited to participate in outdoor cardiovascular training. On hand was a team consisting of a biokinetisist, psychologist, dietitian and doctor.

The adults’ vitals were taken, and advice about lifestyle and nutritional changes given. The programme was a success and adults kept coming back to train on the outskirts during their children’s soccer practices.

“The children feel supported, and now we have entire families engaging in healthy living,” says Van der Schyff.

Esther Lewis,Cape Argus

 

Being fat is bad for your health

Obesity has become a major public health problem in both developed and developing countries. The World Health Organisation has recognised obesity as a disease with morbidity comparable to hypertension and classified its heath hazards according to the risk.

Greatly increased risk:

* Type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance

*Hypertension

*Blood lipid disorders

*Sleep apnoea

*Gall bladder disease

Moderately increased risk:

* Coronary heart disease

* Osteoarthritis

* Gout

Increased risk:

* Colorectal, breast, endometrial cancer

* Reproductive abnormalities

* Back pain.

Cape Argus

 

SA’s children are getting fatter

The prevalence of children being overweight or obese and suffering from high blood pressure is on the rise.

Child, a North West University study now in its fourth year, has tracked children’s health as they progress through primary school. “The prevalence of obesity, which has a direct link with high blood pressure, is on the increase,” said principal investigator Anita Pienaar.

“In 2010, when the children were in Grade 1 and we did the first measurements, we found 12.51 percent were overweight or obese. The prevalence has since risen to 16.71 percent.

“When you consider that a 4.2 percent increase translates into 53 children who were not overweight or obese in Grade 1 but are now in Grade 4, it becomes clear that this is cause for concern.”

A total of 571 children from 20 schools in all four districts of the province were participating in the Child study, which looked at health status, physical development and motor development.

“Among children from the most affluent groups, as many as 27 percent were overweight or obese when we tested them in Grade 4 in 2013,” said Pienaar. This was in comparison to an obesity rate of 13 percent among the poorest children.

But even in the most deprived areas, double the number of children had became obese. “It will be interesting to see what the figures look like when we do the next tests in 2016 when the children are in Grade 7.”

Results of the most recent South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found the heaviest boys and girls were in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The lightest girls were in Free State and the lightest boys in North West.

This month, Discovery Vitality released its Healthy Active Kids Report Card 2014. It found less than half of all pupils were active enough, poverty was a barrier to healthy eating and the rising consumption of fast food and soft drinks was cause for alarm.

Michelle Jones, Cape Times

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