Lifestyle in children and adolescents with obesity: results of the survey of patients and their parents

Introduction. Growth of obesity prevalence in children and adolescents is a serious problem of modern medicine. To learn characteristics of patient’s behaviour, their dietary preference, feeding time and physical loads one can use specialized questionnaires.Aim. Evaluation of lifestyle, physical activity, dietary regimen and consumption of some meals according to results of questioning childrenand adolescents with obesity and their parents.Materials and methods. Hundreds of children and adolescents with obesity 10–17 years and their parents answered the questionnaire onage of obesity onset, its causes, physical activity and nutrition.Results and conclusion. Obesity develops more often at the age of 7–10 years. The most commonly insufficient physical activity and heredity. Specific characteristics of sedentary lifestyle and impared dietary regimen were identified. Comparison of patients’ and parents’ answers allowed to demonsrate the differense in attitude to the problem of obesity and to diminish the influence of not transparant answers on the results of investigation

2001: Melatonin increases both life span and tumor incidence in female CBA mice. The Journals of Gerontology

From the age of 6 months until their natural deaths, female CBA mice were given melatonin with their drinking water (20 mg/l) for 5 consecutive days every month. Intact mice served as controls. The results of this study show that the consumption of melatonin did not significantly influence food consumption, but it did increase the body weight of older mice; it did not influence physical strength or the presence of fatigue; it decreased locomotor activity and body temperature; it inhibited free radical processes in serum, brain, and liver; it slowed down the agerelated switching-off of estrous function; and it increased life span. However, we also found that treatment with the used dose of melatonin increased spontaneous tumor incidence in mice. For this reason, we concluded that it would be premature to recommend melatonin as a geroprotector for long-term use