|
HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Why Weight Gain During Pregnancy Is Undesirable? Overweight or obesity could raise the risk of getting many chronic diseases including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1.4 billion adults aged 20 and older were overweight in 2008. The figure had nearly doubled since 1980. In 2008, more than a third of adults were overweight, and 11 percent obese. Obesity is a global health problem. Every year, at least 2.8 million adults die because of weight-related health diseases. Many women of reproductive age are overweight or obese, for instance, in Australia, 35 percent of women aged 18 to 24 are overweight or obese. It appears that obesity or overweight might not only pose danger to people’s own body, but also affect the health of their offspring too. A study that was published in ‘British Medical Journal’ pointed out that children born from obese women were 35 percent more likely to die prematurely in adulthood. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen conducted the study. 37,709 children of 28,540 women who gave birth between 1950 and 1976 were traced. The children aged between 34 and 61 at the time of the study, and the data of 6,551 children that had already died prior to the start of the study were also included. Of the mothers, 21 percent were and 4 percent obese when they gave birth.
Weights of the mothers were recorded during pregnancy, and body mass index (BMI) was used to gauge whether these mothers were overweight or obese. BMI is the ratio of the square of height (in meters) to weight (kilos). When BMI is between 25 and 29.9, the person is said to be overweight, and when BMI is 30 and above, the person is obese. Results of the study showed that the offspring of obese mothers were 35 percent and those of overweight women were 11 percent more likely to die before the age of 55 years than those of normal-weight mothers. Meanwhile, children of obese mothers were 42 percent more at risk of being admitted to hospital for heart disease as adults. What worry the researchers is that only 4 percent of mothers in the study were obese, which is far less than the prevailing levels. If the link between maternal obesity and adverse outcomes in the adult children persists as rates of maternal obesity rise, then this could lead to increasing numbers of premature deaths and heart problems. As suggested by the study, the intrauterine (womb) environment has a crucial and long-lasting effect on risk of premature mortality in offspring. Other studies had shown that the conditions in the womb could cause lifelong body changes, which may affect such functions as appetite control and metabolism. Undoubtedly, relationship between maternal weight during pregnancy and their child’s health outcomes is expected to be complex and would involve several factors. First of all, children who were brought up in a household where unhealthy eating patterns prevail are more likely to follow these patterns themselves. Then, there might be many hereditary factors that could influence the child’s tendency to be overweight or obese, and their risk of getting diseases. No matter what reasons are behind the association, it is important that women should try to achieve a healthy weight when planning to have a baby, as this may reduce the risk of complications in pregnancy. In other words, strategies to optimize weight before pregnancy are urgently required. In addition, it is necessary to give good lifestyle advice to children of obese mothers and monitor as early as possible the risk factors for heart disease such as high blood pressure, blood sugar, blood fats and smoking. General consensus among health professionals is that further research to confirm a direct and casual association between a woman’s obesity and her child’s risk of dying young is necessary.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright
2007-2012 © HowToPreventHeartDisease.com . All Rights Reserved.d........ |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
