A new recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics, says doctors should treat childhood obesity aggressively.
美国儿科学会的一项新建议称，医生应该积极治疗儿童肥胖症。
 
Obesity is a word used to describe severely overweight people.
肥胖是用来形容严重超重的人的词。
 
In the past, many doctors thought children would grow out of bad eating habits. They used the method of "wait and see" to decide what to do. But the new guidelines say obese children should undergo operations or take medications to reduce their weight. Both actions, the doctors' group said, should reduce the amount of food children can eat.
过去，很多医生都认为孩子会因为不良的饮食习惯而长大。他们用“观望”的方法来决定要做什么。但新指南称，肥胖儿童应该接受手术或服用药物来减轻体重。医生小组表示，这两项措施都应该减少儿童可以吃的食物量。
 
The problem of being overweight affects over 14 million American children. Doctors say carrying extra weight often results in lifelong health problems. Children can develop high blood pressure, diabetes and depression.
超重问题影响着超过 1400 万美国儿童。医生说，超重通常会导致终生的健康问题。儿童会患上高血压、糖尿病和抑郁症。
 
The new guidelines recommend weight loss drugs for children as young as 12 and operations, or surgery, starting at 13.
新指南建议为 12 岁的儿童使用减肥药，并建议从 13 岁开始进行手术。
 
Ihuoma Eneli is a doctor who co-wrote the report containing the new guidelines. Eneli disagrees with the old guidelines. She said, "waiting doesn't work." She said doctors usually see "a continuation of weight gain and the likelihood that [children will] have obesity in adulthood."
Ihuoma Eneli 是一名医生，他与人共同撰写了包含新​​指南的报告。Eneli 不同意旧的指导方针。她说：“等待是没有用的。” 她说，医生通常会看到“体重持续增加，以及 [儿童] 成年后肥胖的可能性。”
 
Eneli is the director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She said the drugs or surgery should go along with life changes. That means children need help choosing better foods and finding ways to exercise more.
Eneli 是俄亥俄州哥伦布市一家医院健康体重和营养中心的主任。她说药物或手术应该随着生活的改变而进行。这意味着孩子们需要帮助来选择更好的食物并找到更多锻炼的方法。
 
Dr. Sandra Hassink was the other doctor who wrote the report. She works for the American Academy of Pediatrics and is the medical director for the Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight. Hassink said the report offers pediatricians a different way to think about obesity. In the past, she said, doctors sometimes thought of obesity as a "personal problem," or failure.
Sandra Hassink 医生是撰写该报告的另一位医生。她在美国儿科学会工作，是儿童健康体重研究所的医学主任。哈辛克说，该报告为儿科医生提供了一种思考肥胖的不同方式。她说，过去，医生有时会将肥胖视为“个人问题”或失败。
 
Children are considered obese if their body mass index, or BMI, is higher than 95 percent of children of the same age. BMI is a measure of body size based on a person's height and weight.
如果儿童的体重指数或 BMI 高于同龄儿童的 95%，则儿童被视为肥胖。BMI 是根据一个人的身高和体重衡量身体尺寸的指标。
 
She said the weight loss tools described in the report should be thought of in the same way as other treatments for health problems. She compared it to prescribing an inhaler for someone who has asthma. Asthma is a medical condition that causes people to have trouble breathing. An inhaler supplies medicine that opens a person's lungs. In the same way, the drugs the doctors talk about in their guidelines help a person to eat less food, which will help them lose weight.
她说，报告中描述的减肥工具应该与其他治疗健康问题的方法一样看待。她将其比作为患有哮喘病的人开吸入器。哮喘是一种导致人们呼吸困难的疾病。吸入器提供打开人肺部的药物。同样，医生在他们的指导方针中谈论的药物可以帮助一个人少吃食物，这将有助于他们减肥。
 
Semaglutide is the drug described in the report. It started as a diabetes treatment. But a version of semaglutide called Wegovy recently received approval as an obesity treatment for children 12 and older.
Semaglutide是报告中描述的药物。它开始作为糖尿病治疗。但一种名为 Wegovy 的 semaglutide 最近获得批准，可用于 12 岁及以上儿童的肥胖治疗。
 
The New England Journal of Medicine reported that teenagers have used the drug and reduced their BMI by an average of 16 percent.
《新英格兰医学杂志》报道说，使用这种药物的青少年平均 BMI 降低了 16%。
 
Dr. Claudia Fox is a weight management doctor at the University of Minnesota. When Wegovy received approval in late December, she started prescribing it to teenagers.
Claudia Fox 博士是明尼苏达大学的体重管理医生。当 Wegovy 在 12 月下旬获得批准时，她开始给青少年开处方。
 
Fox said the drug helps her patients have a "possibility of even having an almost normal body mass index." She called the results "a whole different level of improvement," compared to other treatments.
福克斯说，这种药物帮助她的患者“甚至有可能拥有几乎正常的体重指数”。与其他治疗方法相比，她将结果称为“完全不同程度的改善”。
 
Justin Ryder is a doctor who researches obesity for a children's hospital in Chicago. He said the drug helps the brain and the stomach communicate. "And," he said, "helps you feel more full than you would be (without it)."
贾斯汀·赖德 (Justin Ryder) 是芝加哥一家儿童医院的肥胖症研究医生。他说这种药物有助于大脑和胃的交流。“而且，”他说，“帮助你感觉比你（没有它）更饱。”
 
While children are losing weight because of the drug, it is hard to get. There are two reasons: there is a production shortage, and more doctors are offering it to their patients. Semaglutide is now popular because people on social media have lost weight using it.
虽然孩子们因为药物而减肥，但很难获得。有两个原因：生产短缺，更多的医生正在为他们的病人提供它。Semaglutide 现在很受欢迎，因为社交媒体上的人们使用它减肥。
 
Some doctors, however, worry that not every overweight child is a good candidate for the drug. Dr. Robert Lustig studies children's health at the University of California in San Francisco. He said he wants to be sure people do not prescribe the medication "willy-nilly."
然而，一些医生担心并非每个超重儿童都适合使用这种药物。Robert Lustig 博士在旧金山的加利福尼亚大学研究儿童健康。他说他想确保人们不会随意开药。
 
Dr. Stephanie Byrne is at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Byrne said she still wants to see more research on how semaglutide affects many different children.
Stephanie Byrne 医生在洛杉矶的 Cedars Sinai 医疗中心工作。Byrne 说她仍然希望看到更多关于 semaglutide 如何影响许多不同儿童的研究。
 
But, she said, she is glad pediatricians are starting to think differently about obesity.
但是，她说，她很高兴儿科医生开始对肥胖问题有不同的看法。
 
"I definitely think this is a realization that diet and exercise is not going to do it for a number of teens who are struggling with this," she said.
她说：“我绝对认为这是一种认识，即节食和锻炼对许多为此苦苦挣扎的青少年来说是行不通的。”