A new study by John Komlos analyzing data recently published by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey at the CDC suggests that on average black women in America are becoming shorter in height--a surprising development considering Americans have become taller with each successive generation. The study found the height differential more pronounced in the lower socioeconomic level. Komlos theorizes that obesity, a problem that particularly impacts African American women, might explain this decline in height.
Alan Rogol, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, explained it this way: Obesity causes an apparent acceleration of the onset of puberty in young people. In the case of young women, "the female hormone estrogen is what leads to closure of the ends of long bones, where you grow from," Rogol said. "If that is done more quickly on average, you are at risk for being . . . smaller as an adult."
I really hope that the next surgeon general in the Obama administration, Dr. Sanjay Gupta or whoever it may be, will be able to focus more attention on our country's obesity epidemic.