Can Childhood Obesity Hinder the Brain? Reading, Math Worse in
Kids With Many Obesity-Related Risk Factors By Denise Mann
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD The risks for metabolic syndrome
include: Researcher Antonio Convit, MD, says the bottom line is,
"We are seeing brain changes in kids with metabolic syndrome and
we don't know if this is reversible." Children with metabolic
syndrome scored 10% lower on mental tasks that are important for
learning, he says. The findings appear in Pediatrics. What to
Do? In the new study, obese or overweight teens with metabolic
syndrome could not read as well, scored worse on math tests, and
took longer to complete tasks than children who did not have
metabolic syndrome. What's more, their brains also had physical
differences. The new study included 49 teens with metabolic
syndrome and 62 without it. The more metabolic syndrome risks
that participants had, the more pronounced the brain changes
were, the study shows. Convit calls for testing for insulin
resistance among at-risk