A clinic for childhood obesity

QMI agency

Wednesday, 19 July 2017 20:00

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Wednesday, 19 July 2017 20:00

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MONTREAL – A Montreal clinical attacks a growing health concern in Quebec: childhood obesity, a phenomenon that affects nearly one out of every six young.

More than half of the quebec population is overweight and 18 % are obese.

Young people are also increasingly affected with 15 % of them were obese. It is a real epidemic, according to the public Health, to such an extent that the health care network must organize itself to face this phenomenon of size creating clinical against childhood obesity, which has just opened its doors on avenue Mont-Royal, Montreal.

A family came there to meet Dr. Julie St-Pierre, a pediatrician and researcher at the Clinic 180. In 2013 she founded a clinic against childhood obesity to the Hospital in Saguenay. She decided to recreate the model in the metropolis in order to meet the needs of the health network.

It receives in its cabinet Mathieu, who is 12 years old and suffering from overweight. Four years ago, his parents decided to refer to it.

“Given our genetics, and my problem of diabetes, it was decided to fix the problem immediately to our son,” said his mother, Julie Morin, in an interview with TVA News.

She suffers from type 2 diabetes and has already had weight problems. She wanted to protect her two sons and avoid that they suffer bullying like it.

“I would say things hurtful. I was hiding. I was shy”, she told.

His son Mathieu is proud of him. He made a lot of progress since his first encounter with Dr. St-Pierre.

“When my father shows me pictures of me, four years ago, I found out that I’ve changed a lot”, told the young teenager.

At his side, his younger brother, Alec, asked. “I don’t understand. I have my friends who do not do sport, eat junk, and they are thin!”

Although the genes may be involved and that exercise is important, it is primarily the diet that causes obesity.

Added sugar

“On average, a young Canadian consumes between 100 and 125 grams of added sugar per day, while a child of 5 or 6 years is entitled to 12 grams per day,” said Dr. St-Pierre.

For the past seven years, 500 families were supported in Saguenay, with the help of nurses and nutritionists. The success rate reached 80 %.

The young people are referred by a family doctor. The clinic is a non-profit organization funded by donations.

If Julie St-Pierre tackles the problems of obesity in young people, it is because it has been marked in his childhood.

“My mother was obese morbid and made his first myocardial infarction at age 40,” she recounted.

Michelle Obama

In 2010, the United States, Dr. St-Pierre has been part of the advisory committee for the creation of a national policy on childhood obesity, created by the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

She wants to somehow replicate this program in Quebec with the help of the CLSC, of medicine groups and hospitals.

“I have seen children of 2 years and a half and 3 years old suffer from morbid obesity and other 4 to 5 years old have type 2 diabetes, what we saw earlier in individuals aged 65 years and older,” said the pediatrician.

Obesity represents a cost of $ 30 billion per year in Canada.

“This is sad,” said Dr. St-Pierre, it is that our children, the young people that I treat, are the first generation that will live less long than we are.”

The parents of Matthew and Alec have proven that we can, however, change things.

“It is up to us as parents to show the right path to our children so that they live a long time,” exclaimed Sébastien Fortier, father of Matthew and Alec.

– According to a report from Harold Won