L'ATTIVITA FISICO-SPORTIVA NELLA PREVENZIONE E TERAPIA DELLA OBESITA E DEL DIABETE INFANTILE

The incidence of obesity has risen considerably in recent years and has taken on the dimensions of a veritable social disease. In its onset and perhaps even more so in its maintenance, physical exercise plays a fundamental role: social factors (socioeconomic environment, possibility of using social structures, children being put in the hands of the elderly) favour obesity through an excessively sedentary life; the school itself often exerts a negative influence, particularly during the compulsory schooling years. The obese child presents particular endocrinometabolic characteristics as a result of which the modifications induced by even brief physical exercise are different from those observed in subjects of normal weight. Protracted, regular physical exercise is a useful therapy to be associated with dietetic treatment. Sporting activity can help to solve the psychological problems of the obese by improving the body line and thus breaking through the isolation imposed by those of the same age. Socialization is thus helped.