Early onset of puberty in girls linked to obesity

[Jesus Malverde]

Girls are starting puberty at younger ages - a full year earlier than previously reported in some cases - and the main factor associated with early breast development is obesity, according to a new long-term study released Monday.

Researchers in the Bay Area, New York and Cincinnati have been following the sexual maturation of more than 1,200 girls - a third of whom were recruited from Kaiser medical centers in San Francisco, Oakland and San Rafael - since 2004. At the start of the study, the girls were between 6 and 8 years old.

Breast development at younger ages is a concern among physicians and parents because early menstruation, which can accompany it, has been linked to higher risk of breast cancer. Additional research has also found other potentially detrimental health, environmental and social impacts of precocious adolescence. Health experts say obesity is the biggest factor in the early onset of puberty, but the next step is to understand the factors that lead to obesity.

"It may not just be as simple as calories in and calories out," said Janice Barlow, executive director of Zero Breast Cancer, a San Rafael group devoted to breast cancer prevention that Kaiser brought in to help with the study. "There may be other factors in environment that may be fueling the obesity epidemic."

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Early-onset-of-puberty-in-girls-linked-to-obesity-4952063.php

Soon we'll be talking about menopause in the 40's. Whatever is causing this phenomena is not good for us humans.

[gopiscrap]

1. yikes my daughter didn't hit it til 11

[Myrina]

8. 11? Jebus Crikey! I was 14!!!

Granted that was in the early 80's, before rBGH and other crap in the food supply ...

[gopiscrap]

39. yeah she wasn't 11 til 2009

[Brickbat]

2. IIRC, breast development has been beginning earlier, but menarche has not moved too much.

I'll have to see if I can find that article again....hmmm....

[dipsydoodle]

3. not good for us humans......

its called evolution.

[Avalux]

9. It's not evolution.

External factors are the cause here; what we eat and are exposed to affects growth and development - all those hormones in milk and meat. Evolution takes a very long time to produce biological changes.

[dipsydoodle]

31. Evolution takes a very long time to produce biological changes ?

Search finches on Galapolos to demonstrate that you're wrong in that respect.

[Avalux]

34. Thanks for that.

No one likes to hear they're wrong. I stand corrected and have learned something new.

[dipsydoodle]

38. I didn't mean to sound sharp

I'd read about that ages ago and was surprised myself then. I also didn't mean to be dismissive of claims re. hormones etc which undoubtably have some bearing this subject too.

[bettydavis]

4. Hormones go into cows, pigs, and chickens

...and come out as little kids with breasts and beards. It's in our food people.

[reddread]

19. sounds like they dont want those results

the money go round serves one purpose.
this kind of "research" serves the same interests as
opinion polling of the ignorant.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Menopause in the 40's

Is actually getting to be on the rise. Add to that premature ovarian failure. . . I have a lot of I could post on general fertility issues and it goes beyond simple calories in and calories out. . .

You can't wash steroids, antibiotics and gross food being fed to you your animal protein off.
You can't wash off fertilizers grown in the tomato.
You can't wash off poor water and air quality.
You can't seem to avoid all chemicals.


Girls to Women - our bodies are under attack. And until men start having premature testicular failure -nothing is going to change.

[laundry_queen]

13. Ugh. So true, your last sentence. :( nt

[adirondacker]

20. We'll just make a pill for that!

[JustAnotherGen]

26. Of course we will

But if it's anything like fertility treatments - Testing alone for male/female - has a true price tag of anywhere from $12 to $20K. Right now - there is nothing that can be done for low motility with a pill (men's fishies don't swim so well).

Then think - one round of IVF is anywhere from $10K to $13K and it very often fails.


Now with all of the knowledge there is about how to make a baby anyway but the old fashioned way and how much is 'relatively old' knowledge -

Can you imagine the cost of the testicular starter pill? Or TREATMENT? If there is any justice for women one round should cost no less than $8K. P


BTW - First hand - you will be hard pressed to find ANY insurer to cover this.

[adirondacker]

32. Do you mean to say Insurance companies aren't going to pay for nuticles!

I was trying to be "cute" in a very serious topic. The entire endocrine disruptor epidemic is actually quite frightening for the human population as a whole. We were given a paper to discuss this topic in one of my college classes back in the 90's. I gave my mother grief as a child for her reluctance to use plastic wrap or anything plastic to container food (I saw how much easier it was to put away leftovers at several friend's houses). She knew better, and I recently picked up glass tupperware for food storage. Besides the benefits of not contaminating my meals with carcinogens, the food spoils at a much slower rate.

a little trivia...
The Dutch Cheese Guild ruled that wrapping cheese in plastic was to be forbidden and only wax was permitted. I'll have to search to see if these policies have changed and when.

[JustAnotherGen]

35. Ahhh

I wasn't getting the humor part - I can sometimes be very literal.

And love the 'nuticles' - but yeah. If it ends up falling under A.R.T. - you are on your own. That's how it works today.

[adirondacker]

36. Good thing I have a couple of veterinarian friends! :)

Sorry, snark and sarcasm was part of my imperfect upbringing. I still have to learn to be careful with when I pull the trigger. I usually have friends in real life to pull me out of hot water when I say something over the top, and occasionally forget I'm "on my own" on a message board.

[redqueen]

30. Very well said. nt

[Myrina]

6. .... and rBGH/antibiotics/hormones and HFCS in crap-food we feed kids ...

n/t

[Brainstormy]

7. And carts may push horses

This just makes me crazy. There’s no question that heavier girls experience puberty sooner. But our children live in an absolute ocean of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Rather than a CAUSE of precocious puberty, obesity is more likely another EFFECT of the growth hormones and antibiotics that are used to make our food animals fat! To say nothing of the other chemicals, and especially pesticides, that have already been definitively linked to obesity and metabolic syndrome.

[FarCenter]

10. True, but obesity probably makes their impact greater

Most endocrine disrupting chemicals are fat-soluble. This means that they do not get rapidly flushed out of the body, but rather are stored in fat. These chemicals bioaccumulate up the food chain. (An individual higher up on a food chain must consume many individuals of a lower level in order to obtain sufficient energy. In doing this, an organism not only acquires the energy it needs to live, but it also ingests and accumulates the sum of the chemicals stored in its food.) This means that very low levels of a chemical in the air, water, or soil result in higher levels in plant life, still higher levels in herbivores, and even higher levels in carnivores. An individual will accumulate more of these chemicals throughout his/her lifetime. The major routes of removing these chemicals involve transfer from mother to child, through the placenta and in breast milk.

http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/bendrep.asp

[laundry_queen]

12. vicious circle. Chicken and egg question as well.

See my post below for a link to an interesting blog post by David Suzuki - there was an episode of "The Nature of Things" on it.

[FarCenter]

14. The egg came first

Reptiles lay eggs. Chickens (and other birds) evolved from reptiles (feathered dinosaurs). Therefore, the egg came first.

[leftyohiolib]

33. the rooster came first

[Brainstormy]

16. thank you for science lesson, but

even prenatal exposure to persistent organic pollutants has been associated with overweight in children. Article is still focusing on the cart, not the horse.



Wei, Y., J. Zhu, and A. Nguyen, Urinary concentrations of dichlorophenol pesticides and obesity among adult participants in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2008. Int J Hyg Environ Health, 2013.

Casals-Casas, C. and B. Desvergne, Endocrine disruptors: from endocrine to metabolic disruption. Annu Rev Physiol, 2011. 73: p. 135-62.

Valvi, D., et al., Prenatal concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls, DDE, and DDT and overweight in children: a prospective birth cohort study. Environ Health Perspect, 2012. 120(3): p. 451-7.

[Orrex]

21. Can you provide documentation of that?

Rather than a CAUSE of precocious puberty, obesity is more likely another EFFECT of the growth hormones and antibiotics that are used to make our food animals fat!

I'm not sure that I see how antibiotics would lead to obesity, though I share the concern that overuse of livestock antibiotics are doing more to foster "superbugs" than antibiotics used by humans.

Also, I'm skeptical about the notion that growth hormones administered to livestock are transmitted to humans who consume the meat of those animals and who are then affected by those hormones. It seems unlikely to me, though I certainly don't dismiss it out of turn. I would be interested to see studies that demonstate the link that you describe.

To say nothing of the other chemicals, and especially pesticides, that have already been definitively linked to obesity and metabolic syndrome.

They have? Citation, please.

[Brainstormy]

40. studies

Antibiotics and Obesity

Mouritsen, A., et al., Hypothesis: exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals may interfere with timing of puberty. Int J Androl, 2010. 33(2): p. 346-59.
Massart, F. and G. Saggese, Oestrogenic mycotoxin exposures and precocious pubertal development. Int J Androl, 2010. 33(2): p. 369-76.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/health/scientist-examines-possible-link-between-antibiotics-and-obesity.html?_r=0


Pesticides and Obesity

Wei, Y., J. Zhu, and A. Nguyen, Urinary concentrations of dichlorophenol pesticides and obesity among adult participants in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2008. Int J Hyg Environ Health, 2013.

Casals-Casas, C. and B. Desvergne, Endocrine disruptors: from endocrine to metabolic disruption. Annu Rev Physiol, 2011. 73: p. 135-62.

Valvi, D., et al., Prenatal concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls, DDE, and DDT and overweight in children: a prospective birth cohort study. Environ Health Perspect, 2012. 120(3): p. 451-7.

[Orrex]

41. Interesting

NPR has been running a ton of stuff about the "micro biome" lately, and the link that you provided goes along well with that info. I should have thought of that.

Of course, so far it's still conjectural, so I'm not ready to get behind it 100%. It's intriguing, though, and definitely bears further study.


Thanks for the link.

[laundry_queen]

11. Other factors

Yes, there may be other factors fueling the obesity epidemic.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/panther-lounge/2012/01/is-pollution-making-us-fat/

Also, in my opinion, there's some question about the chicken and the egg - I have PCOS and have always had hormonal 'issues'. I've also always had problems with my weight- although I managed to control it as a teen by starving myself and skipping meals and compulsively exercising. I wonder if my weight caused my hormonal issues, or if it's the other way around. When I first had symptoms of PCOS, I was 10 and a 'normal' weight, so I think my predisposition to obesity began with my hormonal imbalance and early puberty.

While I was an 'early' bloomer, my daughters, for the most part, have not followed me. My 2 oldest got their first periods 2 yrs and 1 year later than I did. My 3rd daughter started breast development quite early, but still a year later than I did. They were breastfed until they self-weaned, while I was fed soy formula and I wonder if that has something to do with it (even though I've done some research and very few studies have been done on it but the ones that have don't show a 'statistically significant' correlation - but then they compared cow's milk formula babies with soy formula babies - not with breastfed babies). At any rate, my girls all seem to be later than I was, and that makes me happy, although my second daughter, who was always large for her age, even as an exclusively breastfed infant, does show some signs of PCOS like me, although her symptoms are no where near as dramatic or as early as what I had.

Funny you should mention menopause in the 40's. My mom was a late bloomer as an adolescent but had early menopause - she was done by 44. I'm 38 and don't have any of the peri-menopause symptoms she had at my age but I was an early bloomer. I'm obese and she's slim. That's neither here nor there I guess, since it's anecdotal, but interesting nonetheless.

[Nay]

15. Wow. 50 yrs ago, I hit puberty at about age 12.5. I read that in

the 1500's, girls hit puberty at about ages 14-15.

[Jesus Malverde]

18. I didn't know about that in the 1500's, interesting...nt

[Nay]

22. IIRC, the cause of the later puberty in the Middle Ages was

periodic lack of enough food/calories. This made people shorter and thinner back then, and kept them from having too many fat cells because they never got fat when young. In fact, they were lucky to have enough to eat regularly.

[SoCalDem]

28. Nutritious & plentiful food adds weight (fat) which triggers puberty

Extreme-dieters/super-athletes often "lose" their menses.

Nature intended for healthy young females to bear young

the hormone laced food and all the empty calories of modernity packed on the pounds. Fat cells produce estrogen too..

Females used to ovulate a LOT less (way back when)

If you used age 14 as the onset....marriage at 16/17 and then sequential pregnancies and lactation (which often suppressed ovulation), it's easy to see that ovulation happens a lot more frequently these days... I have read articles that link the frequent ovulation to the rising reproductive cancers in women.

The female was intended (by nature) to reproduce/lactate/and then die

[Scout]

17. i didn't hit puberty (get my period) until i was 13.5...

but i NEVER had a weight problem as a child. once i hit puberty, it's been a struggle since then.

my anecdotal experience for myself, and my family, is that the puberty hormones cause/exacerbate any weight problems. i entered menopause in my mid-40s, and am glad to be done with all that hormonal mess.

[blueamy66]

24. I hit puberty at 16!

Maybe cause I was/am thin and played sports.

"Filled out" when I was in my late 20s.

Hit menopause at 46.

I'm not complaining....

[PasadenaTrudy]

23. Got my period at 11

I'm 49 now, currently in the Hell that is perimenopause

[Auggie]

25. What's happening with the boys?

[davidn3600]

37. Apparently with boys, obesity can delay puberty

Obesity causes girls to have puberty earlier, while studies show it apparently has the opposite effect in boys...it causes a delay.

[VanillaRhapsody]

27. estrogen is stored in fat...

boys grow breasts...

I didn't get mine until I was 16....because I was a tomboy and very athletic. Unless you have enough body fat to support a pregnancy...you won't menstruate...Athletes (and anorexics) with low body fat can stop menstruating altogether

In Asian countries where women are typically smaller...they have an average age of the onset at 17 (though that may be changing now).

[moriah]

29. This isn't entirely new info -- a certain amount of body fat MUST be present for the body ...

... to realize that it is capable of nurturing a new life.

Childhood obesity can make it harder to judge breast bud development, and what I'd be more interested in hearing were the actual dates of menarche -- if development did not follow the normal schedule after the development of "breast buds" in overweight girls, I'd wonder if they'd actually misjudged fat tissue for the beginnings of glandular development.

[liberal_at_heart]

42. I started when I was 11, and that was 26 yrs ago before all the alarms started going off.

I'm not sure why girls are starting younger. I'm not sure if it spell disaster for women. Sometimes I think we are too quick to associate things. We need more research.