Big wrists could be a warning of heart danger for your child

Almaty. April 13. Kazakhstan Today - A bigger wrist size is linked to a higher risk of heart disease, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Wrist size could help doctors tell which children have a higher risk of heart disease when they grow up, the Daily Mail reported.

Researchers found a bigger wrist size is linked to insulin resistance, which could push up the chances of heart problems in later life.

A new study of almost 500 overweight and obese children had their wrist size recorded using MRI scans or an ordinary tape measure.

Having a bigger bony area accounted for a 20 per cent difference in insulin resistance between children, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Just checking the width of the wrist with a tape measure - including any excess fat - was almost as useful, according to Italian researchers from Sapienza University of Rome.

They claim it will be a better predictor of future problems than how much extra body fat children are carrying.

Dr Marco Capizzi, one of the researchers, said the next step was to check a link between wrist size and insulin resistance in children of healthy weight.

He said the technique could eventually be developed as an easy way for doctors to identify young people at greatest risk.

Excess body fat in youngsters is already linked to several heart disease risk factors in later life, including insulin resistance which makes diabetes more likely to develop.

But children's bodies change rapidly during adolescence which means more accurate methods need to be devised, he said.

'We're hoping to do further research to determine how important this could be and we'll need to look at children of healthy weight' he said.

Dr Capizzi said the research team did not create a cut-off point at which the size of the wrist reached a 'danger' point, but 'the bigger the wrist the more it correlated with insulin resistance', he added.

In the study, 477 overweight and obese children around the age of 10 underwent blood tests to measure their insulin levels and to quantify the amount of insulin resistance.

All had their wrists measured manually with a cloth tape measure, while a subset of 51 children had scanning of the bony area to produce a more accurate wrist size.

The researcher said the size of the bony area was a much more accurate way of checking for insulin resistance than just looking at a child's body mass index (BMI) - the score relating height to weight.

Bigger wrists could be the result of increased bone production triggered by high insulin levels, said lead researcher Professor Raffaella Buzzetti.

She said 'This is a very, very strong link. Wrist circumference mirrors insulin resistance levels.

'Wrist circumference is easily measured and if our work is confirmed by future studies, wrist circumference could someday be used to predict insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease risk.'

Photo: hollyconway.blogspot.com

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