Boys with ADHD are more likely to become obese as adults
Boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AHHD) are more likely to grow up to be obese adults than those who do not have the condition, a new study suggests.Researchers surveyed two groups of 41-year-old men and found those with a history of ADHD were 19 pounds heavier than their non-ADHD counterparts, on average. Data for the new study came from 207 white boys with ADHD in the U.S. who were referred to a research clinic at around age eight and followed as they grew up. Ten years later another group of teenage boys without ADHD, who were otherwise similar to the original participants, were added to the study.Men with a history of ADHD reported weighing 213 pounds, on average, and 41 per cent of them were obese.In comparison, men without ADHD weighed in at an average of 194 pounds, and 22 per cent qualified as obese, Xavier Castellanos from the Child Study Centre at NYU Langone Medical Centre in New York said. “As we learn more about the regions of the brain that may be implicated in obesity, they overlap with brain regions implicated in ADHD,” Castella
May 21, 2013
