Obesity, Bisphenol-A, and 7-Year-Old Girls With Breasts

A new study released this week showed an increase in the rate of young girls going through puberty over the past decade. And we're talking really young girls here. Try age seven.

The researchers found that about 10 percent of seven-year-old white girls were developing breasts, double what was found a decade ago. For young black girls, early signs of puberty were seen in an alarming 24 percent of seven-year-olds. And for Hispanic girls, that rate was nearly 15 percent.

At age eight, those numbers jump even higher, to 18 percent, 43 percent, and 31 percent, respectively.

I'm guessing that by the amount of news coverage this study is generating, other people are as shocked about these findings as I am. Just think about it: By age eight, an average of one-in-three girls will be well into puberty.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, looked at more than 1,200 girls in three American cities: the San Francisco Bay area, greater Cincinnati, and East Harlem in New York. There were roughly equal numbers of white, black, and Hispanic girls ages six-to-eight.

Obesity is suggested as a major factor in the increased rates of puberty in young girls over the past decade. Extra body fat produces estrogen, which then triggers breast development and menstruation. But as the authors of the study point out, that's not the whole story. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as the now famous bisphenol-A (BPA), are likely another major culprit. As we are seeing, BPA is seemingly everywhere, from canned soup to grocery store receipts.

So why does this all matter? To start, obesity is a major factor in many diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. And when children are at such high levels of obesity at age seven or eight, one can only imagine what the severity of their health problems will be as they move into adulthood. Other studies have also shown that earlier puberty can increase the risk of breast cancer due to longer lifetime exposure to estrogen, which can feed some tumors. And just as alarming: the potential social and emotional repercussions of such early development. As the New York Times points out, "life can be difficult for a girl who has a child’s mind in a woman’s body and is not ready to deal with sexual advances from men and boys, or cope with her own hormone-spiked emotions and sexual impulses."

Frank Biro, lead author of the study, told the Times: "It's certainly throwing up a warning flag. I think we need to think about the stuff we’re exposing our bodies to and the bodies of our kids." I should think so, Dr. Biro, I should think so.

Photo credit: edenpictures