Originally published November 8 2005
Pediatricians discover childhood tummy fat may predict diabetes in women
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The journal Pediatrics has published research that links childhood tummy fat in girls with diabetes risk later in life.
Evidence that a woman will be in danger of developing diabetes or heart trouble might appear by the time she is only 10 or 11 years old, scientists are reporting today.
Researchers tracked the health of more than 1,000 black and white girls in Cincinnati and Washington from when they were 10 or 11 years old until they were 18 or 19.
The scientists concluded in an article appearing in the scientific journal Pediatrics that having a larger waistline at the beginning of adolescence meant a 16 percent increase in the likelihood that by the time she was 18 or 19 a girl would be at risk of having diabetes or heart trouble.
However, girls who had larger-than-average waistlines as adolescents but trimmed down by the time they were young women were not at increased risk of the diseases.
Tummy fat, which the researchers called central adiposity, turned out to be more important than having high blood pressure or abnormal levels of triglycerides, glucose or cholesterol in childhood, the researchers from the University of Cincinnati and the National Institutes of Health reported.
The institute is organizing a nationwide collaboration among parks and recreation agencies, health departments and other groups to surround adolescents with influences pushing them toward healthier food and physical activity.
Metabolic syndrome is defined as having three of five conditions: a waistline of at least 40 inches in men or 34 inches in women; a serum triglyceride level of at least 150 milligrams per deciliter; a high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ("good cholesterol") level of 40 milligrams per deciliter or less in men and 50 or less in women; blood pressure of at least 130 over 80; and glucose level of 110 milligrams per deciliter or higher.
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