(ABC) - There's new hope for overweight girls at risk for type 2 diabetes. According to a study published online in "Diabetes Care," losing weight by adulthood can dramatically cut that risk.
Researchers with the National Institutes for Health followed more than 109,000 female nurses and tracked the development of diabetes over a 16-year period.
The women were asked to recall their body shape at ages 5, 10 and 20, choosing one of nine diagrams that best fit their bodies, ranging from gaunt to obese. Their Body Mass Index beginning at age 18 was also considered.
Over the course of the study, more than 3,000 women developed type 2 diabetes, and most of them were overweight as girls. Even more, women who considered themselves larger at every age submitted were 15-times more likely to develop diabetes.
But women who were overweight through childhood but lost weight into adulthood were actually no more likely to become diabetic as their peers who maintained a normal weight as children. Authors of the study say their findings show reversing weight gain in overweight kids is critical to lowering their risk of developing diabetes as adults.
