Hot off the presses, the revered New England Journal of Medicine has published this new research on American Indian children who were “assessed whether body-mass index (BMI), glucose tolerance, and blood pressure and cholesterol levels predicted premature death.”
The researchers concluded that “Obesity, glucose intolerance, and hypertension in childhood were strongly associated with increased rates of premature death from endogenous causes in this population. In contrast, childhood hypercholesterolemia was not a major predictor of premature death from endogenous causes.”
Not very surprising, that! Cholesterol levels are a very crude indicator of cardiovascular risk, with total cholesterol a largely meaningless number.
However, in children, we needed data to show us how obesity really affects them in the long term. In the study group, the heaviest children had more than double the risk of death. Children with highest levels of blood glucose had a 73% greater chance of death.
It is now a major problem for Western society to decide whether child obesity is a form of child abuse or not. This study is likely to give more muscle to those who call for greater State control over the issue of child obesity.
Whichever side of this issue you are on, one thing is for sure — no one is going to be unaffected by this issue anymore!
