Weight Of The Nation Pt. 1 Summary

The documentary "Weight of the Nation Pt. 1" examines the risk factors that contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease, particularly obesity. At the center of this documentary is an examination of the landmark Bogalusa Heart Study and the impact that this study has had on the understanding of the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. As the documentary unfolds the focus shifts to obesity. The prevalence of obesity is discussed at length, as well as some of the contributing factors that seem to be associated with becoming obese. Finally, the documentary looks at a variety of health maladies that are associated with being obese, and what these maladies can mean for overall functioning. The Bogalusa Heart Study is a longitudinal cohort study that began in 1972 in the city of Bogalusa, Louisiana. This study followed a group of school-aged children, both black and white, from childhood through adulthood with the intent of uncovering the early natural history of the development of cardiovascular disease. Since its inception, each participant has engaged in a comprehensive examination twice …show more content…
They were able to reach this definitive conclusion because they were the first study to conduct autopsies on children that died from accidental and non-cardiac causes. The purpose of these autopsies was to see if there was any evidence of cardiovascular disease in children that had died of non-cardiac reasons, in twenty percent of the autopsies perform plaques were discovered. The children that had plaques uncovered in their autopsies were known to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The convergence of the aforementioned clinically observed risk factors with the anatomical proof of cardiovascular disease from the autopsies was enough to cement in the minds of the researchers that the seeds for cardiovascular disease in adulthood are sown in