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Episode Six: Tackling Childhood Obesity Holistically
153 Plays1 year ago
The news is flooded with information about obesity and weight loss drugs, like Ozempic. And it's no wonder - 2 out of 3 adults in the U.S. are obese. One in five children in the country are considered obese.
In this episode, Dr. Dina Peralta-Reich, MD FAAP FOMA, Director of New York Weight Wellness Medicine, shares why an integrative approach to medical mindfulness in weight wellness is critical for kids.
Tune into this episode and learn why BMI is outdated and how to instill healthy habits in your children's lives now so they become lifelong routines.
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Transcript
Introduction to Guardians of Hope
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Guardians of Hope podcast where we bring together parents, nonprofits, and legal experts dedicated to positively impacting children's lives. I'm Cynthia, your host. Before we begin, it's important to note this content should not be used as legal or medical advice. The purpose of this podcast is to inform and unite.
00:00:24
Speaker
So please seek advice from your attorney or doctor to address your specific needs. The thoughts and opinions of my guests are not necessarily my own. This is a platform for sharing.
Meet Dr. Dina Peralta-Reisch
00:00:36
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My next guest is a pediatrician and the director of New York Weight Wellness Medicine, a practice she founded based on medical mindfulness as an integrative approach to weight wellness.
00:00:49
Speaker
Dr. Dina Peralta-Reisch, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Cynthia. I'm very excited to be here with you today. Excellent. So am I. And we're talking about a very important topic. Obesity and weight loss drugs are all over the news. I'd like to focus on childhood health and obesity.
Understanding Obesity and Individualized Treatment
00:01:09
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So why don't you tell me a little bit about your background and your work with your patients?
00:01:14
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Yes, of course. So I am a pediatrician and I am also
00:01:21
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Obesity board certified, that means that I am a specialist on managing obesity. So my current practice and the patients that I see are patients with eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and patients with overweight and obesity. We focus on treating or managing our patients as individuals. We don't follow a specific, you know,
00:01:50
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plans that are the same for everybody. We focus on the patient as an individual where we take the time to understand their lifestyle, their metabolism, their emotional health, their mental health, their family support, and their genetics to be able to provide them with the help that they need to achieve the healthier lifestyle that they deserve.
The Flaws of BMI and New Approaches
00:02:20
Speaker
So you take a holistic approach. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So one thing I've noticed, you know, as a mom and just by reading and informing myself about children's health or just health in general, I noticed that people or doctors tend to calculate obesity or measure obesity by the BMI. Now, is that the right way to measure obesity and what other factors do you consider?
00:02:48
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So that is an excellent question. BMI is a very old tool.
00:02:54
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to determine healthy weight. And we've been using it for many, many years to assess somebody either underweight, regular weight, or overweight, and different stages of obesity. Personally, I don't think that's the right approach. And thankfully, we are moving away from it. Currently, the World Health Organization is working on actually
00:03:24
Speaker
you know, moving away from VMI. But until then, it's the tool that we have and that insurance companies and hospitals utilize to, you know, diagnose a patient. There are definitely better tools. VMI is a screening tool. I personally prefer
00:03:49
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body composition analysis where we could assess total body fat percentage, visceral fat, muscle mass, metabolism, which all these factors are more important in determining
00:04:08
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a healthy weight than just the BMI. But like I'd say, BMI is a screening tool that we have access to. It's very easy to utilize, but it's not as sensitive or as specific. Got it. Thank you, Dr. Dina. So my next question for you is, once you're seeing a patient and you assess them, at what point do you think intervention should take place?
Interventions: Medication and Beyond
00:04:34
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And what are your thoughts on medication?
00:04:38
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So normally when I see the patients is because there's already a concern either by the parents or the patients themselves, depending on the age. So after a very detailed medical history, physical examination and laboratories,
00:04:58
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we determine which way we have to go in the management, right? So sometimes, you know, we are very conservative, but other times medications are required or they're recommended. I am
00:05:20
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I'm a fan. I am perfectly okay utilizing the medications that are FDA approved for adolescents, 12-year-old and above, for the management of overweight with comorbidities and obesity. These medications have proven to be super beneficial for our patients and
00:05:45
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managing their comorbidities like prediabetes, diabetes, high cholesterol, and some mobility limitations and emotional impacts. So when these medications are used appropriately by somebody that is competent in the management of weight and the use of medications, they are excellent.
00:06:15
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Granted, they should always be supervised by a physician. Understood. So these conversations need to be had with the parents, but your patients are kids.
Health Over Aesthetics: A Holistic Approach
00:06:31
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How do you approach those conversations with both, actually, with both the parents and the kids? It can be a very delicate topic.
00:06:39
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Yeah, definitely. It's a very sensitive topic and you have, and there's a fine line, right? That you don't want to, you don't want to cross, especially you don't want to worsen a stigma on how does the child feel emotionally regarding their weight. I always make sure that I ask my patients, depending on their age,
00:07:04
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approach I'll take but mainly I want to know if they know why are there in my office today and I always make sure to ask them are you here because you want to be here or are you here because your parents drag you here?
00:07:21
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and it's funny because most of the time the answer is like both you know and which is a truthful adolescent answer most of the time and then i explain to them a little bit of what is it that i do and i focus
00:07:37
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100% in health, right? I explain to them what are we doing and what is our plan just to make them healthier and feel better and have more energy. And I never make it about aesthetics and never make it about the weight or the number on the scale.
00:07:59
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Okay? Because at the end of the day, that's not what we're treating. We are treating, we're making healthy individuals, helping individuals become healthy. So, and I always make sure that I reinforce that. And that is for both spectrums of weight for either my patients with eating disorders or my patients with overweight and obesity.
00:08:22
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That is so good. Thank you for sharing that. And then I just have one more question for you.
Building Healthy Habits Early
00:08:28
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Why is it so important? We know this, but it's good to share why it is so important to start healthy habits at an early age.
00:08:38
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Oh, that's crucial, right? Because we're cruisers of habit and then we have to, it's very important to introduce our children to healthy foods from the beginning because that way, this is what they're used to, their taste buds, it's part of their routine and it becomes much easier to kind of stick with healthy eating habits and lifestyles if this is something that
00:09:07
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you have been seen within your family within your household and it's just part of your regular routine versus a kid that grow that's growing up just eating things that are packed with sugars artificial products or fast food because that just becomes the normality and and then when they become
00:09:31
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you know, older children or adolescents or young adults, it is more difficult to actually introduce healthy lifestyles. Totally possible. And I have outstanding results with my patients, but it's so much easier if we introduce this healthy habit from early on.
00:09:54
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So that way is not like, oh my God, I am making a sacrifice. It's just like standard, right? This is how I eat. It's not like you're trying to do something different from your routine. Exactly. It starts young, everyone becomes, it becomes a habit. It just becomes a way of life.
Parents as Role Models
00:10:13
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And it's super important that like parents understand that because one of the things that we see all the time, it's like parents complaining about their children
00:10:24
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health or weight while the parents have horrible eating habits.
00:10:29
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Right? And then you can't, it's the same thing with the cell phone, like, or screen time, you know, you have the parent telling their child to put away their phone while the parent it's all day on, on, you know, the phone on social media. So we do have to live by example. And the best way to teach our children, you know, to have a healthy lifestyle is by being the example ourselves.
00:10:56
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So true. That's one of my mantras that I live by, Dr. Dina. Thank you.
Connect with Dr. Dina
00:11:02
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What's a good way for someone to contact you if they want to reach out to you or if they have questions about your practice? Oh, thank you.
00:11:11
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So my office is in the upper east side of New York and you can contact my office via phone 917-370-1912. My website is www.nyweightwellness.com or through my Instagram, Dr. Dina Peralta. Excellent. I will be sure to follow you Dr. Dina and I will add
00:11:38
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your number and link to the podcast description. Thank you so much for joining me today and sharing this important information with everyone. Thank you, Cynthia. It was a pleasure. Happy holidays to you and to everyone. Be safe and well. Thank you, likewise, and keep making a difference in our children. Thank you so much. Bye. Have a good day.
Parenting Tips and Discounts
00:12:07
Speaker
Before I let you all go, I want to give you one of my parenting hacks for battling burnout and fatigue. It's staying hydrated. My days tend to be nonstop, sometimes 12 to 16 hours straight, and that includes intense workouts too. So I add one packet of liquid IV to my water in the mornings, especially during the gym, and it hydrates me two times faster than water alone.
00:12:33
Speaker
I love that I could take the packets anywhere and they taste really good. My personal favorite is strawberry lemonade, but there's so many flavors to choose from and they even have sugar free options. It's such a win for anyone who needs a little extra hydration, especially now during cold and flu season.
00:12:51
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Real people, real flavor, real hydrating. Get 20% off when you go to liquidiv.com and use my code HOPEFORKIDS at checkout. That's 20% off anything you order when you shop for better hydration today using promo code HOPEFORKIDS at liquidiv.com.