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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new study suggests teen girls with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more kilograms are more likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS) as an adult.
Researchers found women at the age of 18 with a BMI of 30 or over -- which researchers considered obese -- had more than twice the risk of developing MS compared to those women who had a BMI of 18.5 to 20.9. The study involved 238,371 women from the Nurses' Health Study who were followed for 40 years. Results also show women with larger body sizes at age 20 had twice the risk of MS compared to thinner bodied women.
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"Our results suggest that weight during adolescence, rather than childhood or adulthood, is critical in determining the risk of MS," study author Kassandra Munger, Sc.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, was quoted as saying. Teaching and practicing obesity prevention from the start, but especially during teenage years, may be an important step in reducing the risk of MS later in life for women."
SOURCE: Neurology, November 10, 2009
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