Recent years have seen a marked rise of juvenile obesity ratio in our city. Currently, the obesity ratio of the children aged 2 to 18 reaches nearly 10% and another 11% of the same-aged children are overweight, who may probably become obese.

Juvenile obesity usually results in higher incidence rates of fatty liver, high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia and T2DM. Research shows that the percentages of obese children who suffer from high blood pressure, hyper-triglyceridemia and T2DM are respectively 32.5%,23.3% and 0.65‰, which are multiple-fold higher than those of normal children.

Under normal circumstances, fat only accounts for 3% to 5% of liver tissue. And a liver with fat exceeding 5% is fatty liver. Recently, the Capital Institute of Pediatrics carried out an examination on fatty liver and liver functions among some obese middle school and primary school students. The result indicated that among 10% of them the fat content in liver reached the level of fatty liver under clinical diagnosis, which was 51 times higher than children of normal weight. The children who suffer from fatty liver have a striking feature in body form – potbelly, i.e. fat gathers on waist and belly. These potbelly children have a much higher possibility to suffer from fatty liver than moderately fat children. Following viral hepatitis, fatty liver has become a major liver disease that poses threat to young people’s health, which entails immediate and extensive concern of the whole society.

Liver is the No. 2 key viscera of human body following heart. It is referred to as the chemical plant of human body for it undertakes such functions as digestion, metabolizing and detoxification. Once children suffer from fatty liver, their liver function will be affected, which not only affects their normal growth and results in fat metabolic disorder but also may trigger the occurrence of diabetes and other diseases. With children’s growth and the extension of disease course, fatty liver may develop into fatty hepatitis, hepatic fibrosis and even liver cirrhosis, whose damage is practically the same as that of viral hepatitis B.

Fatty liver usually comes hand in hand with obesity and hyperlipidemia. Relatively speaking, young people have a shorter fatty liver disease history, so most fatty livers can be controlled and cured through timely treatment. The key to prevent juvenile fatty liver lies in controlling obesity.

Beijing Municipal Government expressly added “weight control” to one of the four targets in its chronic disease treatment and health promotion action program in this year. In addition, all middle schools and primary schools of Beijing have incorporated obesity prevention into their health and disease prevention working program and guaranteed to have students undergo one hour of physical exercises each day. These measures are of great importance in checking the upward trend of juvenile obesity.

Under the guidance of doctors, parents of obese children should adjust children’s dietary structure and correct their unhealthy life habits. First, such basic principles should be followed as “one proper and two lows”, i.e. proper amount of protein, low sugar and low fat. The diet should be light and moderate in quantity, with absorption of enough fresh vegetables and fruits and limited calorie. Secondly, require children to do outdoor aerobic exercises such as jogging, swimming, cycling and dancing so as to consume redundant energy. Thirdly, it’s of great significance to ensure sufficient and high-quality sleep since during the sleep, more blood, oxygen and nutrition will be supplied to liver cell to help the rehabilitation of fatty liver cell. But if fatty liver is very serious or has other complications such as blood lipid disorder, it’s necessary to resort to clinical treatment.