Childhood obesity has become a public health problem in many countries, so much so that the World Health Organization (WHO) has created a commission to curb what is considered an epidemic today. It is estimated that 42 million children 5 years old and younger meet the criteria for being obese or overweight.
Apparently, what happens in pregnancy would have a lot to do with its development. According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, of the Endocrinology Society, Children of women who have high blood pressure during pregnancy are at greater risk of developing childhood obesity.
Hypertensive states are quite frequent in pregnancy, affect approximately 10% of pregnant women, although most cases are usually mild.
The study analyzed the blood pressure levels and the weight of more than 88 thousand couples of mother-children between 1999 and 2013. The tension was taken from the mothers in the three trimesters of pregnancy and the weight of their children was recorded when They were four and seven years old.
The most outstanding data were the measurements made in the second trimester. The children of mothers who registered hypertension during this trimester had 49 percent more likely to be overweight or obese compared to the children of mothers who had lower blood pressure levels.
On the other hand, children of women with high blood pressure during the third trimester were 14 percent more likely to meet the criteria of overweight or obesity. The mother's body size before pregnancy did not affect the relationship.
The lead author of the study, Ju-Sheng Zheng of Qingdao University in China, notes:
"Our study is the first to show that, among pregnant women, high blood pressure is associated with an increased risk of overweight and obesity for their children. There was still a risk for children of women who did not have hypertension, but whose blood pressure during pregnancy I was at the upper end of the normal range. "
Control stress in pregnancy
In pregnancy, it is important to control blood pressure periodically to detect possible variations in normal values.
There are factors that increase the risk of suffering from hypertension such as having a first pregnancy with high age, having suffered hypertension in previous pregnancy, multiple pregnancies or having excessively gained weight during pregnancy.
