I wonder if the ladies who are working out silently put down their dumbbells after seeing this title? And are the "couch potatoes" holding potato chips secretly laughing?
Weight and height, two indispensable indicators for measuring modern beauty, are actually quietly linked to many diseases.
Before discussing the relationship between these two conditions and diseases, let's first provide some basic information about endometriosis and adenomyosis.
What is endometriosis?
Endometriosis, or endometriosis for short, refers to the presence of endometrial tissue (glandules and stroma) outside the uterine body.
This is a disease closely related to estrogen, affecting approximately 5%-10% of women, and mainly occurs during the reproductive years.
Although endometriosis has been found outside the pelvic cavity, it is more commonly found in the ovaries and fundus ligaments.
This condition is usually chronic and can reduce a woman's health and quality of life. Symptoms vary, but it often leads to adverse consequences such as irregular menstruation, pelvic pain, and infertility.
But is that all?
It might be more serious than you think. Mounting evidence suggests that women with endometriosis have a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease and gynecological cancers. This is why medical experts cannot take it lightly.
Despite the significant impact endometriosis has on women, little is known about its causes and mechanisms. A few identified risk factors include menstruation (early menarche and short menstrual cycles) and a family history of endometriosis.
Surprisingly, being overly slim and tall in adult women is also considered a high-risk factor for endometriosis.
What exactly is adenomyosis?
Adenomyosis refers to the invasion of endometrial glands and stroma into the myometrium.
Although whether endometriosis and adenomyosis belong to the same category of diseases has been controversial, they are generally considered to be different diseases.
However, many clinical patients have both endometriosis and adenomyosis, which may suggest that the two diseases share a common etiology.
Their biggest commonality is that they are all regulated by estrogen and can all cause excruciating pain.
Unlike endometriosis, current research shows that being overweight in adults is positively correlated with the risk of developing adenomyosis, and there is still limited research on the relationship between height and the disease.
So what if you're tall and thin?
Endometriosis may be present as early as adolescence, but the actual diagnosis may be delayed by up to 7 years.
Therefore, research on risk factors for adult disease may have missed the critical time window for the development of endometriosis and may be affected by pre-existing diseases.
Research suggests that early body shape may be a marker of endometriosis risk; however, the effects of birth weight, childhood or adolescent body shape on the disease remain contradictory.
To explore the relationship between body size, height, and these diseases, researchers at the Danish Center for Clinical Research and Prevention and the University Hospital of Copenhagen conducted a large-scale cohort study on birth weight, childhood body mass index (BMI), and height between 7 and 13 years of age.
This study included 171,447 women and followed them for 40 years, totaling 5 million visits. Among them, 2,149 women were diagnosed with endometriosis and 1,410 were diagnosed with adenomyosis.
Among patients with endometriosis, 950 cases (44.2%) had lesions in the ovary and 333 cases (15.5%) had lesions in the pelvic peritoneum.
The average age of diagnosis for endometriosis was 37 years, with ovarian endometriosis at 39 years and pelvic peritoneum at 34 years. In contrast, the average age of diagnosis for adenomyosis in women was relatively late, at 45 years.
1. BMI and Disease Risk
Studies have found a significant negative correlation between children's BMI and the overall risk of endometriosis, with girls having a higher BMI having a relatively lower risk of endometriosis.
In addition, childhood BMI is negatively correlated with the risk of ovarian and pelvic peritoneal endometriosis.
In short, a slightly stronger build makes you less prone to illness, and unhealthy thinness is not beautiful. Okay, let's go get some iced cola!
However, in adenomyosis, BMI and risk of developing the disease were only observed in a few age groups.
2. Height and Disease Risk
Unlike BMI, a child's height is positively correlated with the risk of endometriosis, so taller girls have a higher risk of developing the disease.
Similarly, this correlation was not found in adenomyosis.
Related evidence also suggests that estrogen exposure is crucial for accelerating linear growth during puberty. Therefore, this is a potential mechanism that could help explore a positive link between height and estrogen-related disorders such as endometriosis.
3. Birth weight and disease risk
In the birth weight analysis, 130,569 girls were included, and during the follow-up period, 1,780 women were diagnosed with endometriosis and 1,097 women were diagnosed with adenomyosis.
In linear or categorical analyses, birth weight was not associated with the risk of endometriosis. Results for adenomyosis also showed no association.
Summarize
This large, population-based cohort study found that excessive thinness and height in girls were associated with an increased risk of overall endometriosis, ovarian and pelvic peritoneal endometriosis, while the association between childhood BMI or height and the risk of adenomyosis was limited.
Being thin is good, and loving to eat is not wrong, but maintaining a BMI within the most suitable range for health in your current age group is the best protection for women.
While we can't change our height, we can adjust our BMI and manage our physique through exercise and diet.
Furthermore, birth weight was not significantly associated with the risk of endometriosis or adenomyosis.
Birth size is not important; what matters is whether there is unreasonable obesity or emaciation during growth.
Therefore, no stage of life should be ignored. Only by living each journey carefully will life reward you with the best gifts.
Endometriosis and adenomyosis are chronic diseases that plague women. Having the disease itself is not terrible; the key is treatment. Medication can provide relief, but surgery is the only way to cure it completely.
Ladies, have you caught today's new research? Manage your figure well and stay away from endometriosis!
The above content is exclusively authorized for use only and may not be reproduced without the copyright holder's authorization.
