Early Teenage Weight Gain Could Result Increase Stroke Risks Upon Reaching Adulthood, Study Reveals

Researchers from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) were reported to discover that early obesity in teenagers could increase the risk of developing stroke when they reach their adult years. The study was said to reveal the association between weight gain and stroke.

According to Science Daily, the study involved 37,669 Swedish men which were followed for 38 years upon reaching age 20. The participants had their body mass index measured from when they were 8 years old and was measured again after 20 years. The study then resulted in recording 918 men who had strokes.

With that said, the product of the experiment was said to be that among the normal weight men from the 33,511 participants, 779 were mentioned to experience stroke. Meanwhile, the 990 overweight men from both age 8 until 20, 36 or 3.6 percent were recorded to had a stroke. Hence, the overweight men from both time points were believed to have a 70 percent increased risk of stroke.

On the other hand, the 1,800 participants who had been normal during their age 8 and then turned overweight when they were age 20, 67 or 3.7 percent had a stroke. Thus, they were concluded to have an 80 percent more likely to develop stroke. As there was also 1,368 overweight men from they were age 8 and had their weight turn to normal from when they are already 20, only 36 were found out to have a stroke.

"The stroke rate has been increasing among young adults even while it has been decreasing for older people. While we don't know the reasons for this increase, it has occurred at the same time as the obesity epidemic,” study author Jenny M. Kindblom, MD, Ph.D., from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden said in a statement.

Aside from that, people who have an increasing body mass index from their ages 8 to age 20 were discovered in the study to have an increased high blood pressure as well. In which, high blood pressure is also linked to stroke as News Medical reported.

Nonetheless, the authors of the study noted that they are not claiming that an increased weight gain directly increases the risk of stroke but instead only shows the link between the two. The study was published in an online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.