Childhood obesity could reduce fertility later

A steep rise in the childhood obesity could have greater consequences than risk of overall health. Obesity in childhood can meddle with onset of puberty and reduce the ability to reproduce, particularly in females, says a study.

The study found that the human body may be working to adjust with this newly surfaced problem. For thousands of years of evolution, poor nutrition or starvation were factors to deal with, overabundance of food was hardly any concern.

"The issue of so many humans being obese is very recent in evolutionary terms, and since nutritional status is important to reproduction, metabolic syndromes caused by obesity may profoundly affect reproductive capacity," journal Frontiers in Endocrinology has quoted saying Patrick Chappell, assistant professor of veterinary medicine at Oregon State University and study author.

Research is on to find out overall impact of obesity on the beginning of puberty and effects on the liver, pancreas and other endocrine glands, Chappell said. It was observed that puberty start early in girls and take place on a rapid pace says the study.

There could be several impacts as per scientist. One theory suggests that it may affect kisspeptin, a recently characterized neuro-hormone essential for reproduction. Normal secretions of this hormone may be disrupted by endocrine signals from fat that serve to communicate to the brain. The increased fat that serves the brain can disrupt the normal secretions of this hormone through endocrine signals.

Another likely impact of childhood obesity is pubertal timing and reproduction in general. It affects circadian clocks, which reflect the natural rhythms of night and day. A change in the sleep-wake cycles may alter the secretion of hormones such as cortisol, testosterone, and insulin, researchers have observed.

"Any disruption of circadian clocks throughout the body can cause a number of problems, and major changes in diet and metabolism can affect these cellular clocks," Chappell has been quoted as saying.

"Disruption of the clock through diet can even feed into a further disruption of normal metabolism, making the damage worse, as well as affecting sleep and reproduction," he said.

--with inputs from IANS