You probably already worry about your teenager’s wellbeing if he or she watches a lot of television or doesn’t get enough exercise, but according to a team of scientists at Umeå University, in collaboration with colleagues in Melbourne, Australia, not only does this affect your teen’s wellness now, but a sedentary lifestyle at the age of 16 can mean that he or she develops metabolic syndrome by the time they’re 43.
When your metabolism is in disorder, this is what is referred to as metabolic syndrome. It is a combination of obesity (especially in the abdominal area), elevated blood lipids, hypertension and impaired glucose tolerance. Alone, these are great wellness risks but they can also lead to a significant risk of developing type 2 diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
It is commonly known that if you don’t get enough physical activity, you are at an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, as does time spent watching TV. These factors have been proven independently of one another, but the findings from this study has been able to prove a relationship between the two that extends over a large part of life, specifically between 16 to 43 years of age.
For the study, which is published in the journal Diabetes Care, the researchers followed the lives of 888 participants in northern Sweden from 1981, when they were 14 or 15 years old, until 2008. The researchers involved in the study were lead author, Patrik Wennberg, a general practitioner and Adjunct Professor Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, as well as Per Gustafsson, Maria Wennberg and Anne Hammarström, all at Unit of General Practice, and David Dunstan at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne.
Wennberg commented, ‘The results demonstrate that we need to consider how we can reduce sedentary lifestyle among children and adolescents.’ He urged that it may be more that just a question of ‘only focusing on increased fitness and sports activities for those who are already interested’ as the wellbeing of all teenagers are being affected now, and later on in life, by this dangerously sedentary lifestyle.
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