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Overweight Children at Risk for Spinal Problems
Reported December 07, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Being pudgy as child may not only leave painful
memories of school yard jokes … it could also leave lasting health
consequences. A new study shows being overweight as a child could cause
early degeneration of the spine.
Researchers examined images of the spines of 188 adolescents who complained
of back pain. The images showed more than half (52.1 percent) of the
patients had an abnormality in their lower spine, mostly affecting the
discs, or the spongy cushions between spinal bones.
The researchers were also able to determine the body mass index (BMI) for
106 of those patients. Fifty-four were found to have a BMI grater than the
75th percentile for age, 68.5 percent of who had abnormal spines. Only 34.6
percent of the children at or below a healthy weight had abnormal spines.
"This is the first study to show an association between increased body mass
index (BMI) and disc abnormalities in children," Judah G. Burns, M.D., lead
author and a fellow in diagnostic neuroradiology at The Children's Hospital
at Montefiore in New York City, was quoted as saying. "In children, back
pain is usually attributed to muscle spasm or sprain," Dr. Burns added. "It
is assumed that disc disease does not occur in children, but my experience
says otherwise."
Source: The Radiological Society of North America Annual Meeting, November
29 - December 4 2009, Chicago, IL |
