"Obese Children Not Necessarily Doomed To Diabetes, Heart Disease"

The Los Angeles Times (11/17, Stein) "Booster Shots" blog reports, "Fat kids often turn into fat adults with a host of related health problems: diabetes, high blood pressure, clogged arteries." However, a study published Nov. 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine "finds that if those heavy kids lose weight, they may be on a par with people who were never overweight."
HealthDay (11/17, Goodwin) points out that after analyzing "data from four studies of a total of 6,300 children from the United States, Finland and Australia," and tracking those youngsters for approximately 23 years, researchers found that "among the 774 kids who were overweight or obese as children, nearly 65 percent became obese adults." Those obese adults went on to suffer from greatly increased rates of type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, hypertension, and higher cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

However, the study "found no difference in risk in any of those parameters between those who were heavy as kids but shed the pounds as adults, and those who had a normal BMI all along," MedPage Today (11/17, Fiore) notes. The study authors explained, however, that "those who were obese as adults, regardless of childhood adiposity, had significantly increased risks of all outcomes." Reuters (11/17, Emery) also covers the story

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