A new study conducted by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health suggest that Women who are overweight or obese at age 18 are at a greater risk of dying in middle age than women who maintain a healthy weight in their teens, according to a press release from Foregood.
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The Nurses’ Health study records and examines the health habits and medical records of more than 100 000 women as part of an ongoing federally financed study of women’s health problems. The study stretches from 1989 and includes participants aged between 24 and 44. Over the last 12 years 710 of the monitored women have died and the accompanying evaluation showed that those women who were overweight or obese at 18 were most likely to die.
Harvard’s Frank Hu explains that those who weighed too much at 18 were more likely to be overweight at 34. “Our results suggest that childhood obesity itself has adverse health effects over and above obesity during adulthood,” says Hu adding that childhood obesity needs urgent attention as it can now be linked to adult obesity and heart disease in later life.
The US now boasts a horrifying 25 million children that are medically classified as either overweight or on the brink of becoming so, according to a government survey. “Obesity is most clearly detrimental to health and shortens longevity,” explains Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society.
As far as South Africa goes the medical fraternity has noticed a marked increase in the number of patients who are struggling to maintain a healthy weight.
“We need to start paying urgent attention to the eating and exercising habits of our children now. Maintaining a healthy weight in childhood is essential as it prevents complications such as disturbed effects on growth, psychosocial difficulties, hyperlipidemia, fatty liver, and abnormal glucose metabolism, as well as persistence into adulthood, leading to a myriad of further complications," says Mandy Marcus of the South African Centre for Diabetes and Endocrinology. – (Foregood)
Source: Press release from Foregood Investments Group
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