Childhood obesity triggers early puberty: study

[Nuna]

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Childhood obesity in the United States appears to be causing girls to reach puberty at an earlier age, for reasons that are not clear, a study said on Monday.



The report from the University of Michigan's Mott Children's Hospital said a multiyear study following a group of 354 girls found that those who were fatter at age 3 and who gained weight during the next three years reached puberty, as defined by breast development, by age 9.

"Our finding that increased body fatness is associated with the earlier onset of puberty provides additional evidence that growing rates of obesity among children in this country may be contributing to the trend of early maturation in girls," said Dr. Joyce Lee, the lead author.

"Previous studies had found that girls who have earlier puberty tend to have higher body mass index, but it was unclear whether puberty led to the weight gain or weight gain led to the earlier onset of puberty," she added.

"Our study offers evidence that it is the latter," Lee said.

Earlier studies have found that U.S. girls are reaching puberty earlier than was the case 30 years ago, a time span during which rates of childhood obesity also increased, the study said.

In the study girls were classified as at risk for being overweight if their body mass index (a measurement of weight related to age and height) was between the 85th and 95th percentiles, and defined as overweight if the measurement was greater than the 95th percentile.

The researchers said that 168 of the girls were classified as being "in puberty" by the age of 9 and nearly two dozen reported having their first menstrual period by two years later.

Higher body mass index scores at all ages had a "strong association with earlier onset of puberty, the authors said.

The study was published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Earlier onset of puberty in girls has been associated with a number of adverse outcomes, including psychiatric disorders and deficits in psychosocial functioning, earlier initiation of alcohol use, sexual intercourse and teenage pregnancy and increased rates of adult obesity and reproductive cancers," the study said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070305/ts_nm/weight_puberty_dc

[Zuleikaa]

And the hormones in the meat, milk, and oils have nothing to do with it?

[ReginaW]

And the hormones in the meat, milk, and oils have nothing to do with it?

Personally, I'm not convinced - while I agree our farming methods stink and is negatively effecting our meat and milk (and milk products), the rise in early puberty is also happening in coutries where cattle and dairy cows are grazed (not force fed grains), and are not injected with hormones and/or antibiotics.

Add to this it's also happening in countries without much consumption of dairy and/or high intakes of meat (think Japan)....what many of the countries, including our own, share in common is manufactured foods gaining in the market, with more sugars, more refined oils and more processed grains being part of those packaged foods and thus the overall diet.

While in the US this correlates strongly with a higher BMI, in other countries it doesn't necessarily make overt higher BMI, but seems to increase abdominal fat....and abdominal fat stores, whether a girl is slim or obese, does play with reproductive hormones and other endocrine hormones (insulin, thyroid, etc.) negatively.

It's really annoying that everyone (the "experts") loves to hone in on BMI and not so much on viseral fat IMO...but one can have a higher BMI and mostly subcutaneous fat, so there is little damage happening to the endocrine system....or one can be slim, normal BMI and have too much visceral fat stores and have their endocrine system being negatively effected even though they're normal weight.

In the US it's easy to blame overweight/obesity - so many are overweight or obese that is appears to be causative....but if you consider other countries, without the high levels of overweight/obesity experiencing similar early puberty in girls and want to look at diet as correleated, it's sugars, refined oils and processed grains increasing the incidence by way of packaged foods.

For what it's worth - that's my two cents!

[Nuna]

Personally, I'm not convinced - while I agree our farming methods stink and is negatively effecting our meat and milk (and milk products), the rise in early puberty is also happening in coutries where cattle and dairy cows are grazed (not force fed grains), and are not injected with hormones and/or antibiotics.

Add to this it's also happening in countries without much consumption of dairy and/or high intakes of meat (think Japan)....what many of the countries, including our own, share in common is manufactured foods gaining in the market, with more sugars, more refined oils and more processed grains being part of those packaged foods and thus the overall diet.

While in the US this correlates strongly with a higher BMI, in other countries it doesn't necessarily make overt higher BMI, but seems to increase abdominal fat....and abdominal fat stores, whether a girl is slim or obese, does play with reproductive hormones and other endocrine hormones (insulin, thyroid, etc.) negatively.

It's really annoying that everyone (the "experts") loves to hone in on BMI and not so much on viseral fat IMO...but one can have a higher BMI and mostly subcutaneous fat, so there is little damage happening to the endocrine system....or one can be slim, normal BMI and have too much visceral fat stores and have their endocrine system being negatively effected even though they're normal weight.

In the US it's easy to blame overweight/obesity - so many are overweight or obese that is appears to be causative....but if you consider other countries, without the high levels of overweight/obesity experiencing similar early puberty in girls and want to look at diet as correleated, it's sugars, refined oils and processed grains increasing the incidence by way of packaged foods.

For what it's worth - that's my two cents!

I agree. :thup:

[Whoa182]

And the hormones in the meat, milk, and oils have nothing to do with it?

I know people are not monkeys or rodents... but in both when their energy intake is reduced puberty delayed. When they are fed more calories puberty happens earlier and they die earlier too.

[bsheets]

Another similar article:

Obesity in children linked to earlier puberty
Email Print Normal font Large font Polly Curtis and Carol Nader
March 6, 2007

Advertisement
AdvertisementGIRLS who are obese at the age of four are more likely to reach puberty before their 10th birthday.

The findings stem from a study which predicts that puberty will come earlier as the child obesity crisis worsens. The research, the first to track children from when they were toddlers to the age of 12, establishes a firm link between childhood obesity and early onset puberty.

The findings will add to pressure on governments to tackle the rising incidence of child obesity. The American researchers warn that the obesity crisis is now affecting children's development, while British experts say the trend will follow in Britain as childhood obesity reaches US levels.

Joyce Lee, assistant professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of Michigan, and lead researcher on the study, said: "This is a crucial study because it is the first longitudinal study to follow girls from 36 months to the age of 12.

"We witnessed early onset puberty at nine among those who were obese by the age of four. Before, it's not been clear whether girls are obese because they are hitting puberty earlier or hitting puberty early because they are obese.

"Early puberty is associated with increased psychological and social problems, early alcohol consumption and smoking. There can be long-term implications for the children."

The research, published in the American journal Pediatrics, studied 400 girls, recording weight and early signs of puberty. The monitoring included breast development and the start of menstruation. About 30 per cent of the children were overweight or obese at the age of nine.

Scores at all ages of a higher body mass index (BMI), the calculation of weight using height measurements, were found to have a strong association with an earlier onset of puberty in girls. For every extra point on the girls' BMI scores at 36 months, the odds of having earlier puberty increased by 44 per cent.

In Australia, Boyd Swinburn, professor of population health at Deakin University, said the results confirmed what pediatricians knew about obesity's effect on stimulating the early onset of growth spurts and puberty.

"It sounds like the new piece of evidence is they're able to predict it from the age of four, and particularly for girls. The fat tissue is a source of female hormones. So a lot of fat tissue will increase the amount of oestrogen available and that is certainly a likely explanation for girls."

Professor Swinburn said obese children may also go through "a rather precocious" growth spurt, contributing to the early onset of puberty. They were more likely to be taller in those earlier years, but that did not influence their final height.

He said early puberty came with other issues. The early onset of periods could be traumatic for young girls. And for boys, being very big and having a burst of testosterone with puberty might trigger aggression.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/diet/obesity-in-children-linked-to-earlier-puberty/2007/03/05/1172943413906.html