Risk Of Premature Death In Obese Adolescents


Obese teenage girls face a threefold risk of premature death, according to a new study reported in the July edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Lead researcher, Dr. Frank B. Hu, an associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health says, “This study underscores the importance of childhood obesity which not only has health consequences for children, but increases the risk for death in adulthood."

But another report, published in the same issue, found that the diet drug sibutramine, brand-named Meridia, along with behavior therapy, helps very obese adolescents lose weight. That study was funded by the makers of Meridia, Abbott Laboratories, Inc.

That finding could prove valuable in the United States, where 15.5 percent of teens are overweight.

In the first study, Hu's team found a link between teenage obesity and premature death among 102,400 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study II. The women, who were aged 24 to 44 at the start of the study, were asked to recall their weight when they were 18 years old. During 12 years of follow-up, 710 of the women died.

The researchers found that a higher-than-normal body mass index, a ratio of weight to height, at age 18 was associated with as much as a threefold increased risk for death, compared with girls who had a normal BMI.

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Good info...

But do you know that obesity in females is a risk factor of breast cancer.. It is said that, due to increase in fat cell, estrogen can get accumulated leading to constent triggering of the estrogen receptors on the breats cells.. This may lead to Cancer..

Obesity is a main source of other disease like DM!! And its complications like MI, retinopathy, neuropathy...

So better take care of your BMI(Body mass index)..

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Environmental and financial factors play more important role.... Its true tat people are genetically prone to become obese.. These are all a viscious circle..

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