Heavy teen girls risk metabolic syndrome
A recent study indicates that adolescent girls who carry excess weight around the middle and who have high levels of harmful triglycerides are at increased risk of developing the so-called metabolic syndrome — a cluster of heart disease and diabetes risk factors such as excess body weight, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol levels.
In contrast, transient preadolescent central adiposity was not found to be associated with metabolic syndrome later in life.
This suggests that pre-adolescent girls who are obese or overweight can reduce their chance of developing metabolic syndrome as an adult if they are able to adjust their body composition to a healthier range through exercise and fat loss, rather than remaining obese through their teen years.
The findings are based on a longitudinal study of more than 1000 girls who were followed for 10 years starting at ages 9 and 10. The study focused on the five components of the metabolic syndrome: high waist circumference, high glucose, high triglycerides, low “good” HDL cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
At 9 and 10 years of age, just one girl of each race (0.2 percent) had three or more components of the metabolic syndrome. Ten years later, however, 20 black girls (3.5 percent) and 12 white girls (2.3 percent) had at least three components.
Links:
- Heavy teen girls risk metabolic syndrome, (Yahoo / Reuters)
- Development of the Metabolic Syndrome in Black and White Adolescent Girls: A Longitudinal Assessment, John A. Morrison, Lisa Aronson Friedman, William R. Harlan, Linda C. Harlan, Bruce A. Barton, George B. Schreiber, and David J. Klein, Pediatrics, Vol. 116 No. 5 November 2005
Tags: obesity, metabolic syndrome, weight loss, parenting, nutrition
