A new study has disclosed that obese children are vulnerable to bone fractures and more likely to improve osteoporosis in old age.
Overweight children develop bigger skeletons in order to carry their additional weight, reports the Independent.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) study including 499 healthy six-year-old children found their bigger bones have 5 to 6 per cent lower bone density, because they lack sufficient minerals to make them strong.
It advised childhood obesity will improve the risk of osteoporosis, and debilitating hip and back fractures in old age, as 90 % of bone mass is acquired in childhood, directly affecting how strong bones are in the later life.
The kids are part of a much larger cohort being studied by MRC scientists at the Life course Epidemiology Unit in Southampton, in an attempt to understand how lifestyle, diet and other environmental factors in the pregnancy and childhood influence diseases of ageing, like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Zoe Cole, rheumatologist and researcher, told, “The findings made tackling childhood obesity also more urgent as the costs of osteoporosis are un affordable.”
The study will be presented at the British Society for a Rheumatology conference.
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