[AtLast]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

http://news.yahoo.com/early-sexual-a...160823517.html

Early sexual abuse increases heart risks

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Women who were repeatedly sexually abused as girls have a 62 percent higher risk of heart problems later in life compared with women who were not abused, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

The findings, presented at the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Florida, underscored the lasting physical effects of early sexual abuse.

Much of the increased risk was related to coping strategies among abuse survivors such as overeating, alcohol use and smoking.

"The single biggest factor explaining the link between severe child abuse and adult cardiovascular disease was the tendency of abused girls to have gained more weight throughout adolescence and into adulthood," Janet Rich-Edwards of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study, said in a statement.

The team analyzed data from a study of more than 67,000 nurses. Nine percent of these women had reported severe physical abuse and 11 percent reported being raped in their childhood or adolescence.

The team found that repeated episodes of forced sex in childhood or adolescence translated into a 62 percent higher risk of heart attacks and strokes later in life.

Physical abuse also took a toll. Women who had been beaten in their youth had a 45 percent higher risk of heart trouble.

There was no increased heart risk in women who reported mild to moderate physical or sexual abuse.

Much of the effect was related to higher rates of obesity, smoking, alcohol use, high blood pressure and diabetes, which accounted for 41 percent of the increased risk of heart problems among women who had been physically abused and 37 percent of the association with sexual abuse, the team said.

The findings suggest severe physical and sexual abuse are significant risk factors for future heart disease, and women and their doctors need to take steps to reduce this risk.

"We need to learn more about specific psychological, lifestyle, and medical interventions to improve the health of abuse survivors." Rich-Edwards said in a statement.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Peter Cooney)

These results certainly go along with my prior work with teen child sexual abuse- every single patient I worked with developed some type of body weight problem from obesity to severe eating disorders such as bulmia and anorexia. Stats that reflect that nearly 80% of women are either sexually abused or harrassed in the US is startling. Look at this and the rate of obesity among our young people along with the increases of heart problems, diabetes and even stroke in our young people related to obesity. And these rates have risen for boys- and so has our awareness of just how often they are victims of sexual abuse (finally, we are getting this!).

Frankly, US society has been more than a little bit in denail about sex abuse of children (and sexual harrassment in the work place). When are we going to deal with why the hell so many people sexually abuse children? Come on, this indicates some things we need to be dealing with for both girls/women and boys/men. Lets get our heads out of the sand!

A really good area for involvement is Michelle Obama's work and support about childhood obesity in the US. There are recent programs and educational pursuits about this cropping up that might help us combat this problem- and the relationship to it and sexual abuse.

A link for "Let's Move"-

http://www.letsmove.gov/