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Height may Increase Diabetes
Risk
Taller kids are at increased risk for Type 1 diabetes.
Kids who are
taller than their peers may be at increased risk for developing
type 1 diabetes, a new study reports. Researchers say the reason
may lie in their genes -- taller kids in the study also had taller
parents.
Scientists
know children who eventually develop type 1 diabetes first exhibit
increased insulin secretion before the first symptoms occur. This
increased insulin secretion could, in turn, lead to increased
growth in terms of height. While previous studies have looked at
the height of children who are diagnosed with diabetes, results
have been inconclusive.
Investigators from the University of Illinois studied 451 children
who were being seen at a pediatric diabetes clinic and compared
data on them with growth information on more than 10,000 children
enrolled in a national nutrition study.
Results
showed children with diabetes were actually shorter than their
non-diabetic peers during their first year of life. However, from
age 3 until they reached puberty, the diabetic children were
taller.
Most of the
excess height, however, was attributed to the fact that these
children had taller parents. The researchers say this is the most
likely explanation for the link found between childhood diabetes
and a taller stature, explaining that increased parental height
leads to increased childhood height, which increases the risk for
diabetes. SOURCE:
Pediatrics, 2002;109:479-483
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FACT:
A clove of
garlic each day may lower total cholesterol by as much as 9% and
be part of, but not a substitute for, a meal plan low in saturated
fat.
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