The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has published a research in which obesity in early teenage years could result in an increased risk of a stroke attack during adulthood. The researchers of the study also tried to determine the association between gaining weight and strokes.
Science Daily presented the study conducted by the ANN researchers. The study used 37,669 Swedish men which were studied until they reached the age of 20. Thant is approximately 38 years of research. The subjects had their body mass index measured starting with the age of 8 and once again when they reached 20 years old.
The second phase of the study consisted in recording 918 men who had strokes.
The results showed that from the 33,511 participants, 779 of normal weight subjects experienced a stroke episode, while 990 overweight men from both phases (overweight at 8 years old and also at 20 years old) were recorded to experience a stroke episode.
1,800 participants who had not been old during infancy but turned overweight in their 20s, only 67 of them (3.7 %) has a stroke. Also, 1,368 overweight men in early childhood who then lost weight until their 20s, only 36 of them suffered from a stroke episode.
The results clearly showed that people fighting with obesity since early childhood until their 20s also suffer from high blood pressure, which is also linked to strokes.
According to the researchers, their purpose was not to state that obesity increases stroke risks; rather their purpose was to analyze the relationship between the two variables (obesity and strokes). For those who want to further read the study, Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology has published it online.
The results clearly state there is a strong link between early teenage obesity and stroke episodes suffered during adulthood.
