An American doctor specialising in obesity research told Hamilton Lions the island might have to institute ?Draconian? policies to stem the tide of obese children becoming diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Chris Kjolhede from the Department of Paediatrics and Research Institute at Basset Healthcare in upstate New York explained the definition of obesity and the major complications that come along with being overweight.

?This used to be more of an adult problem but now children are being affected by the complications that come from obesity,? Dr. Kjolhede said.

He said that the problem is not only limited in the US and he said even in developing countries obesity affects many lives.

But in the small town in upstate New York, which is roughly the same size as Bermuda, Dr. Kjolhede decided to do his research. There, he found that the biggest problem was obesity and that 13.4 percent of obese men and 10.6 percent of obese women were likely to develop diabetes over a ten year period.

To diagnose if a person is obese, their Body Mass Index (BMI) is calculated by taking the height and weight of the patient.

?For children, if they are over the 85 percentile of age and gender there is a problem that needs to be addressed. If they are over the 95 percentile for their age or gender then there really is a problem that must be monitored,? he explained.

For adults, anyone with a BMI between 25 and 30 is at risk for complications like type II diabetes, he said, but obesity can also lead to self-esteem problems for adolescent males and females, cardiovascular problems and infertility problems.

For many years, type II diabetes affected mostly in obese adults but with obesity is on the rise among children who are developing the insulin resistant diabetes.

?This primary prevention for type II diabetes is to start with kids and their diets.

?Everything works for treatments but only for about two years of strict diets where a patient loses the weight but about two years later all the weight is back on. The only treatment that has been good is gastric stapling but we don?t want to do this to all of our kids,? he said.

Dr. Kjolhede said that in a ?discrete? country like Bermuda there are so many resources that can be tapped into, including schools and churches.

He said that policies could be set down by health ministries but generally become to ?Draconian? when they start to limit society.

?We can make a plan but it isn?t likely that things will change very fast or for a number of years.?

But he said starting with identifying the problem with obesity and children was important.

Dr. Kjolhede will be presenting his talk on obesity and complications tonight at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration institute tonight at 7 p.m. At 6 p.m., free blood and cholesterol screenings will be provided.