Kids Health Issues

Leapin' Lizards is being labeled an exertainment center and is the largest of it's kind in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  An exertainment center is a place where exercise meets entertainment.  Because society today has become so seditary, obesity is at an all time high.  Not only do people eat poorly, but they do not take the time to get out and exercise.  The excuse many times is that exercise is not fun, it is a chore.  At Leapin' Lizards we have found a way to make exercising fun for children.  We have focused activities for our youth since Diabetes, hypertension and other obesity-related chronic diseases that are prevalent among adults have now become more common in youngsters. The percentage of children and adolescents who are overweight and obese is now higher than ever before. Poor dietary habits and inactivity are reported to contribute to the increase of obesity in youth.  Today's youth are considered the most inactive generation in history caused in part by reductions in school physical education programs and unavailable or unsafe community recreational facilities.   

·         Approximately 30.3 percent of children (ages 6 to 11) are overweight and 15.3 percent are obese. For adolescents (ages 12 to 19), 30.4 percent are overweight and 15.5 percent are obese.

·         Excess weight in childhood and adolescence has been found to predict overweight in adults. Overweight children, aged 10 to 14, with at least one overweight or obese parent (BMI> 27.3 for women and > 27.8 for men in one study), were reported to have a 79 percent likelihood of overweight persisting into adulthood.

Leapin' Lizards is a fun, safe recreational facility for children.  We want to be a part of the solution. 

Why shouldn't exercise be fun?

We have chosen to focus on exertainment because obesity is such a problem in the US especially in children.  Every area of our facility requires physical activity.  There are activities to challenge children with minimal physical ability to strong athletic skills.  The point being that exercise can be fun and entertaining and can target all ages, shapes and sizes. 

Leapin' Lizards is a Business Delivering Fun Solutions That Fight Obesity and Inactivity

The Concept: Technology has changed our lifestyles. As a result:

• Significant increases in obesity
• Growing concerns about diabetes
• Increases in depression
• Increases in sensory integration dysfunction disorders such as dyslexia, ADHD, Autism 

Leapin Lizards wants to position itself to deal with these issues.

U.S. Obesity Epidemic Snapshot

• In 2003 the CDC Reported:
   - 64 % of U.S. Population Overweight or Obese
   - 4 Million Americans Weight 300 lbs or More
   - 400,000 Americans Weigh 400 lbs
   - 15% of Children are Obese

Statistics

·         Overweight prevalence is higher in boys (32.7 percent) than girls (27.8 percent). In adolescents, overweight prevalence is about the same for females (30.2 percent) and males (30.5 percent).

·         The prevalence of obesity quadrupled over 25 years among boys and girls, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1

·         Obesity prevalence more than doubled over 25 years among adolescent males and females, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2

Race

·         African American, Hispanic American and Native American children and adolescents have particularly high obesity prevalence.

·         Overweight (85th percentile) and obesity (95th percentile) prevalence for children and adolescents is presented by racial group in Table 3.

Table 3

·         Among female youth, the highest overweight and obesity prevalence is found in black (non-Hispanic) girls (ages 6 to 11), 37.6 percent and 22.2 percent respectively, and black (non-Hispanic) adolescent females (ages 12 to 19), 45.5 percent and 26.6 percent respectively.

·         Among male youth, the highest overweight and obesity prevalence is found in Mexican American boys (ages 6 to 11), 43 percent and 27.3 percent respectively, and Mexican American adolescent males (ages 12 to 19), 44.2 percent and 27.5 percent respectively.

·         Overweight prevalence for Native American children and adolescents (ages 5 to 17) was reported in a 1999 study as 39 percent for males and 38 percent for females in the Aberdeen area Indian Health Service.

·         Asian American adolescents (ages 13 to 18) were reported to have an overweight prevalence of 20.6 percent in the 1996 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

·         Asian-American and Hispanic-American adolescents born in the U.S. to immigrant parents are more than twice as likely to be overweight as foreign born adolescents who move to the U.S.

Today, the situation is significantly worse!

Annual Economic Cost of Obesity

• U.S. $117 Billion in 2000 (Comparable Costs of Cigarette Smoking)
• 400,000 Deaths Each Year Most in Prime Earning Years
• Lost Productivity: $3.9 Billion
   - Lost Work Days: 39.3 Million
   - Physician Office Visits: 62.7 Million
   - Restricted Activity Days: 239.0 Million
   - Bed-Days: 89.5

Obesity Trends

• Youth are the fastest growing segment of the obese population.
• The United States is now spending 16% of its Gross National Product on health care compared with 8% fifteen years ago.
• Trend moving more towards what Japan is now experiencing with 50% diabetes and utilizing 30% of their Gross National Product on health care.

Related Health Risks of Childhood Obesity

• Type 2 Diabetes - Major Factor in Development of Resistance to Insulin
• Heart Disease & Hypertension - Heart Must Work Harder
• Cancer - Increases Risk of Prostate and Uterine Cancer
• Osteoarthritis - Excess Weight Causes Joint Strain and Inflammation
• Respiratory Problems - Fat Stored in Neck & Tongue Obstructs Air Passage - Sleep Apnea
• Depression - Frustration with Physical Pain, Discrimination, Feelings of Failure
• High Cholesterol

Depression

• Depression is a serious consequence of inactivity
• Over 8 million children take anti-depressants
• Harvard has released a study showing exercise produces greater sustained control of depression than antidepressants.
• Exercise:
   - releases endorphins,
   - stimulates the elimination of adrenalin and cortisol
   - naturally increases the production of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, the critical       ingredients needed to reduce, eliminate, or manage depression.

Sensory Integration Dysfunction

Sensory Integration Dysfunction is Fast Becoming a Mainstream Problem
• Inactivity Prevents Kids from Proper Neurological Development
• Properly Developed Neurological System
   - Takes in Information
   - Organizes & Makes Sense of the Information
   - Enables us & to Act Accordingly
   - Enables Us to Achieve Increasingly Complex Goal Directed Actions
• The Neurological System is primitive at birth and requires stimulation to develop
• If stimulation does not occur:
   - Normal Development Does Not Occur
   - Normal Adaptive Responses Not Achieved
   - Learning, Physical and Emotional Development as Well as Behavior Impacted Negatively
• Results in increase occurrences of ADHD, Dyslexia, Autism, and a multiplicity of neuromuscular development and visual-perceptual-motor problems.

Mayo Clinic researchers who tested the effects of activity-based video games on energy expenditure in 15 children considered of normal weight and 10 considered mildly obese.

All the kids underwent energy expenditure measurements while watching TV, while playing traditional video games, while playing games requiring them to get up and get moving, and while walking on a treadmill while watching TV.

When the kids played a video game placing them in the action and requiring them to catch balls and other objects, their energy expenditure tripled. The result was the same for both the normal weight and obese children.

Walking on the treadmill also tripled energy expenditure levels for the normal weight kids, but upped levels for the obese kids by five times. The best results for both groups of kids were seen when they played a video game that required them to get up and dance, with all the kids burning the most calories while playing that game. The obese kids did especially well, burning about six-times more calories than they did while sitting still.

The researchers note their study doesn't provide any surprising results, but does underscore the role more active video games could play in helping the nation's children build better physical fitness.

"Projections indicate that screen time for children is likely to continue to increase, rather than decrease," write the authors. "We think that converting seat-based screen time to activity-associated screen time is an essential approach for promoting an active environment that is also fun for children."

SOURCE: PEDIATRICS, 2006;118: e1831-e1835

SOLUTIONS

We have to offer new ways to get active that are consistent with our lifestyles

• Obesity is Easier to Prevent Than to Treat
• Get People Exercising Without Them Knowing It
• Make it Fun
• Build Bridges With:
   - Kids
   - Parents
   - Schools - After School Programs
• Activity Must Be:
   - Right Kind of Activity
   - Right Environment

Interactive Technology

With the massive swing to interactive computer games, now a $35 billion market, there is a new game in town; Interactive Fitness Systems. It is our prediction that within the next few years, we will see an interactive fitness room alongside strength and cardio rooms in every fitness facility. The following Brands have already emerged in this space:
• Dance Dance Revolution by Konami
• Game Bike

• Sportwall
• Trazer by Cybex
• Makoto
• Konami Boxing

These brands offer individual workouts for people older than 8 years. Leapin' Lizards is the only location in the Dallas/ Fort Worth metroplex that offers solutions for all markets and is unique in its ability to serve athletic training, group training and small children.

How Interactive Technology Works

Interactive programs stimulate the neurological
system to adapt to a higher level of
efficiency by concurrently:
• attracting participation and engaging sustained interest with computer games;
• Stimulating the hands, feet, eyes, ears and the vestibular system
• motivating brain/body engagement and
• engaging cognitive and creative decision making under pressure
• delivering a cardiovascular workout in a game format

Leapin' Lizard Reaches People Currently Not Being Met By Traditional Exercise Programs

• Attracting participation with activities that inactive people WANT to do
• Sustaining Interest with an extensive variety of programs that can be adapted for all ages, abilities, interests and special needs
• Accommodating small or large groups with limited staffing resources
• Using the same equipment to address the fitness needs of the entire family regardless of athletic ability or age.

The Health Benefits

• Develops more fully integrated sensory modes
• Improves muscle strength
• Increases metabolism
• Lowers cholesterol
• Increases circulation and improves cardiovascular tone
• Improves stamina, balance, posture, and digestion
• Strengthens bones
• Diabetes is possibly prevented by increasing the utilization of blood sugar.
• Biochemically, the increased serotonin and endorphin activity supports a natural sense of wellbeing that also lowers sugar cravings and overeating.
• Effectively burns up adrenaline and other hormones released in the fight or flight response and can effectively melt physical tension.

Interactive Exercise - Food for the brain

• Interactive fitness programs encourage right and left brain intelligence and balance as the participant is directed to perform movements that develop the corpus collosum, the super highway of connective motor and sensory axons, that connects the two hemispheres of the brain.
• Movement is essential to the development of the four lobes of the brain and the more both hemispheres and all lobes are activated by use, the more dendritic connections form and extend across the corpus collosum and myelinate.
• The more myelination, the faster the processing between both hemispheres and all the lobes of the brain.
• The more we access both hemispheres, the more intelligently we are able to function.
• It is necessary to use both hemispheres of the brain to be maximally proficient at anything.