Obesity is linked to autism

Source: The Daily Buzz

The health risks associated with obesity keep growing.  The latest finding?  Obese women are 60% more likely to have children with autism than their slender counterparts.

Researchers, who published their study in the journal Pediatrics, believe insulin resistance could be the link.  Obese women are often insulin resistant.  As a result, the way their bodies create and then deliver sugar to the varying organs in their bodies is altered.  A fetal brain requires considerable sugar to properly develop, and an obese woman’s altered state may negatively influence how sugar is delivered to her growing fetus.

Because obesity is an epidemic in the US, this finding is alarming.  However, unlike many health conditions, obesity can be addressed, and obese women who focus on living healthy lifestyles can see hypertension vanish and say good-bye to diabetes.  Wherever you may be on your weight loss journey, take a minute to congratulate yourself for focusing on this truly important health issue.  Maintaining a healthy weight, it seems, is important not only to your own health, but the health of others.