Researchers of a new study found that children with behavioral problems are at a higher risk of developing chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity later in life.
Childhood behavioral problems are not only restricted to personality problems in adulthood. Researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health conducted a study and found that children with behavioral problems were at a higher risk of developing chronic diseases like diabetes, heart diseases and obesity later in life.
Researchers studied the data of more than 4,000 participants in the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol. They found that the children who portrayed behavioral issues at the age of 8 also showed higher levels of two proteins by the time they were 10 years old. Higher levels of these two proteins (C-reactive protein-CRP; and Interleukin 6-IL-6) are cited to be early warning signs for chronic diseases. Though previous studies have linked childhood behavioral problems to heath problems later in life, this is the first time a study has linked mental health and inflammation in childhood.
"This new research shows for the first time that having behavioral problems in childhood can put children on the path to ill health much earlier than we previously realized," Karestan Koenen, PhD, the report's senior author and associate professor of Epidemiology, said in a press release. "The important message for healthcare professionals is that they need to monitor the physical health as well as the mental health of children with behavioral problems in order to identify those at risk as early as possible."
Behavioral problems are associated with the way the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis works. This axis is responsible for controlling reactions to stress and the immune system. In the case of a malfunction, it releases the two proteins that are associated with inflammatory diseases. This could be one of the reasons why children with behavioral problems are at a higher risk of developing chronic diseases later in life.
