AM:STARs: Metabolic Challenges to Adolescent Health

The problem of metabolic disorders in adolescence has recently exploded onto the scene with the epidemic of childhood and adolescent obesity. Adolescence is a time of rapid growth, but sometimes it is not rapid enough to out-distance the accumulation of total body fat from a variety of different sources. Do the media cause obesity? Are there programs that have been successful in dealing with overweight and obese adolescents? Can we safely offer the option of bariatric surgery to serverly obese teenagers? At the same time, constant progress is being made with more "traditional" problems such as eating disorders and bone growth. What can the practitioner do in his or her own office with these significant metabolic problems? The authors of this issue of AM:STARs seek to provide the answers to these questions.