Science Daily reports in the February 17 issue that a recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine is very alarming. Researchers in Sweden collaborated with researchers in the U.S. to determine how childhood obesity and other risk factors for cardio disease can affect premature death.
The parameters of the study are as follows: 4,857 children from the indigenous Indian population in the U.S. born between 1945 and 1984; all had medical exams, measurement for body fat (BMI), cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar. The children were followed and monitored for an average of 24 years.
The results: “559 individuals (11.5%) died before the age of 55, 166 of them from natural causes. The most common natural cause of death was alcohol-related. Among the four risk factors that were monitored in this study, childhood obesity turned out to be the strong predictor of premature death from disease. The 1,214 most overweight children in the group had a mortality frequency that was more than twice as high (230%) of that of the leanest quarter of those studied.”
An important note: “This study is especially interesting since the group under study, as children as early as the 1940’s, had an equally high level of obesity as many children today. The proportion of overweight children is on the rise all over the world." Early childhood habits play a major role in following a healthy lifestyle. Mrs. Obama is leading our nation to fight childhood obesity in the U.S. We all need to make efforts to support this initiative and help our young have healthy futures.
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