Obesity risk might turn teens off smoking
By Megan Rauscher
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Telling teenage would-be smokers that lighting up may make them fat down the road may be a more effective deterrent than harping on the risks of heart disease and cancer from smoking, hints research published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
In a study, Finnish researchers found that smoking during adolescence strongly predicted the development of abdominal obesity in adulthood, among both men and women.
In particular, they found that girls who smoked at least 10 cigarettes daily during adolescence had a 3.4-centimeter larger waistline as young adults, on average, than did girls who had never smoked.
Smoking during adolescence also increased a woman’s odds of being heavy in general later in life, not just having a large waistline. Girls who smoked at least 10 cigarettes daily during adolescence were twice as likely to become overweight as nonsmokers.
The findings stem from a long-term follow-up study of nearly 4300 Finnish twins born between 1975 and 1979. About 50 percent of the men and women had never smoked and 12 percent had smoked during adolescence. By the time they were in their early 20s, about 24 percent of men and 11 percent of women were overweight.
In comments to Reuters Health, study chief Dr. Suoma E. Saarni, from University of Helsinki, told Reuters Health that smoking in adolescence “seems to predispose” the smoker to a large waistline, independent of health habits and parents body weight (i.e., a young person’s genetic predisposition to being overweight or obese).
“And most interesting,” said Saarni, the apparent link between smoking during adolescence and being heavy later on was independent of the young person’s own body weight — meaning that those who were heavy smokers had greater waist circumference even within the same body mass index (BMI) levels as their non-smokers peers.
This research, Saarni added, “gives a tool” to highlight the risks of smoking to adolescents and young adults “by showing the unhealthy effect on the body shape.” This can be an important deterrent, “because usually young people find cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes or even cancer so distant risks that they have very little impact on ones smoking behavior.”
SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, January 2009.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Related Posts:
By Anne Harding NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Here’s another reason not to smoke, if you’re a woman: PMS. Women 27 to 44 years old who smoke are twice as likely to develop premenstrual syndrome over the next two to four years, especially hormonally-related symptoms like backaches, bloating, breast tenderness, and acne, Dr. Elizabeth R. Bertone-Johnson of
Full Post: Cigarette smoking may worsen premenstrual woes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who smoke during pregnancy may cause permanent blood vessel damage in their children that may become evident as early as young adulthood and raise the risk for heart attack and stroke, Dutch investigators reported today. The study involved 732 young adults, born between 1970 and 1973, who were evaluated at
Full Post: Smoking while pregnant harms baby’s blood vessels
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Fathers-to-be who smoke and want to protect the health of their families should take it outside, suggests new research from Korea. Newborns whose fathers had smoked in the home had higher levels of nicotine in their hair than babies born to non-smoking dads, Dr. Moon-Woo Seong of the National Center in
Full Post: Dad’s in-home smoking may harm family’s health
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. adults who smoke has dropped below 20 percent for the first time on record but cigarettes still kill almost half a million people a year, health officials said on Thursday. About 19.8 percent of U.S. adults — 43.4 million people — were smokers in 2007. That was
Full Post: U.S. smoking rate is under 20 percent for first time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who occasionally binge-drink may have a heightened long-term risk of suffering a stroke, even if they do not regularly drink heavily, a new study suggests. Researchers have known that while moderate drinking seems to lower the risk of heart disease and stroke, regular, heavy alcohol consumption has the opposite effect.
Full Post: Binge-drinking may raise stroke risk