New YORK (Reuters Health) – overweight children that thin in adulthood are not at greater risk of suffering from health problems linked to obesity, concluded a review of four studies involving kids and adults of United States, Australia and Finland.

The results do not prove that the loss of weight in itself remove additional risks but they imply that children with overweight or obesity are not automatically meant to have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease

“There is hope for children with overweight and obese”, told Reuters Health Dr. Markus Juonala of the University of Turku, author of the study

“If they can become not obese adults, then the risks of these results – diabetes, hypertension, early atherosclerosis – are quite similar to the of those who have normal weight throughout his life.” “I think that it is a very positive message,” added.

In United States, about one in every six children and adolescents is considered obese.

The new report, published in New England Journal of Medicine, combined data from four investigations that followed more than 6,000 guys for an average of 23 years.

“Believed that if he was obese child, it was all”, said Juonala. “But after these findings, what really matters is how we are to reach adulthood”, pointed out.

The researchers simply observed what was happening at the time and did not assess whether actively reduce the weight of a child can eliminate the health problems later in life.

But the results suggest that “there is time and opportunities for intervention to help those kids who are overweight and obese,” said the author.

Analysis also confirmed what doctors have known for years: that being an adult overweight increases the risk of several problems of health

Also, people who had had both children’s normal weight of large, obese adults who were overweight children often face the greatest risk.

Instead, for adults that had reduced the size of your waist of excessive to normal, the picture was encouraging: risk factors for heart disease rates did not differ from the those who had been thin all the life.

“Primary care physicians should not have the perspective pessimistic that once settles child obesity cardiovascular risk is determined,” indicated the researchers.

Given that previous studies showed that do obese children lower weight reduces cardiac risk factors, the results of this analysis look strong, said Dr. Albert Rocchini, of the University of Michigan, in an editorial.

(Published in Spanish by Ana Laura Mitidieri)