With the onset of a drastic pandemic in 2020, lifestyles changed on a grand level. Adults made sure to have a lifestyle full of healthy elements to tackle the aftereffects of the pandemic. Following this, preventive measures have been put into action for children who now face diseases and threats they never thought of.
The novel, Coronavirus, changed what everyone thought was an ongoing process. It redirected an inclined growth’s trajectory to an eclipse of hyperbole. The lives led by people become unpredictable and incomprehensible.
It affected everyone around the globe, irrespective of their color, age, and gender. As it is said, “the disease knows no color.” It was proven.
The disease took lives, tangled simple lifestyles, complicating everything. There is no such thing as the most vulnerable when it comes to a pandemic. The only difference it produces is the loss of tenderness from humanity.
Children have always been at the receiving end of the severity of any disease. A pandemic was no different. It disrupted normal life and a straight growth chart for children.
Pediatricians across the globe are working hard to provide a stable life to infants and children with curable and incurable diseases alike. The nobility of practitioners extends to children more in these trying times as they face new levels of prevailing health disruptions.
Life after COVID
When the pandemic set in, governments put their citizens under varied regulations of lockdown. People were barricaded in their own houses in a form of house arrest. It was for their own safety that the pandemic threat was properly understood, analyzed, and dealt with.
Having done this, with vaccinations made available across the world by multiple institutes, the threat of a pandemic has subsided, if not withdrawn completely.
Now, the most important part of the healthcare industry is researching the after-effects of a disease. Adults are not the only section of the human clan that requires attention. Children are the future adults and they are in much more need of practitioners understanding their health and its concerns.
Multiple incurable and curable diseases have been found in children during this post-COVID time frame. Two of them are Type 1 diabetes and obesity.
Researchers from several laboratories from famous institutes have brought forth a detailed study of these two issues, causing an uproar in childcare.
Type 1 Diabetes
Children from their infancy have been found to suffer from diabetes. This is called gestational diabetes, which can occur during the fetal stages (pregnancy months). There have been studied and practiced methods to reduce such chances.
Diabetes in adults and children differs to a small extent. As an adult, one has a better understanding of the gravity of the disease, but a child’s heart does not know that.
The pandemic changed the genetic makeup of children affected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The study, conducted by a team of researchers comprising members from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and MetroHealth System, found a connection between children affected by the virus pandemic and Type 1 diabetes.
Two different groups of children with age differences were taken for the study. Children affected by different lung ailments were put in comparison with children affected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Moreover, children were divided into age groups of 1-year-old to 9 years old in one group and those from 10 years old to 18 years old in the other.
Furthermore, it has been found that children of parents with a genetic and hereditary history of diabetes are at more risk than those who do not carry such genetic and hereditary markers.
Obesity and Mental Health
Children are susceptible to negativity, be it in any form. Verbal or mobile negativity affects children, which can be observed in many forms. Covid-19 brought ultimate disturbance into the lives of people, which they tended to avoid with all their might in the pre-pandemic era.
Obesity among toddlers has more than tripled since COVID-19 was discovered to be a factor. The virus engulfed their bodies in such a state that the bounce back did not produce the desired results.
Recent analysis has shown the reversal of food consumption and physical exercise. Pediatric obesity has been a global health threat since the start of the millennium. And now with the pandemic, it has gotten worse.
Three studies have reported an increase in BMI due to a change in eating habits, with six concluding the emphasis on a reduction in physical activity for the same.
The increase in obesity has increased the level of stress and decreased the general goodness of mental health.
Takeaway
The decline of health with the interference of a pandemic is expected at any cost. The studies performed clearly showcase the adverse effects of a pandemic. The changes in lifestyle might have proven good for a lot of people, but for some, they did not.
Nevertheless, with so much research in the field of healthcare, a productive way to tackle the health scare is not far behind.
Read More: Do early life changes in diet, lifestyle and environment triggers cancer?
