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Adopted Kids' Early Puberty is Health Risk

Posted on: Monday, 22 September 2008, 15:00 CDT

Internationally adopted children can undergo puberty at an early age making them more susceptible to health risks as adults, Canadian researchers said.

University of Montreal researchers said that earlier puberty is linked to abdominal obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers.

"Many factors are at play but a low birth weight that isn't recuperated between the ages 0 and 2, combined with an accelerated weight gain during childhood, would increase the risk of early puberty and chronic disease in adulthood," Helene Delisle, a professor at the University of Montreal, said in a statement.

In Quebec, half of the 900 children who are internationally adopted every year are from China and some girls begin puberty as early as age 8 and boys at age 10.

The beginning of puberty is greatly correlated to weight and weight gain provokes the secretion of leptin, a hormone that plays a key role in regulating appetite, Delisle explained.

When calorie intake increases, leptin levels also increase which in turn provokes the secretion of Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone, which regulates the development of ovulation and the menstrual cycle in women and spermatogenesis in men.

Therefore, a radical change in diet, as is often observed in children migrating to an industrialized country, can trigger puberty, Delisle said.

Source: United Press International

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