According to Master - Doctor Nguyen Trong Tin (Traditional Medicine Pediatrics Clinic, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City - Branch 3), in recent years, the physique of Vietnamese people has been changing in a positive direction, shown through the remarkable increase in height of young people. However, modern social lifestyle as well as unreasonable nutrition also bring about some consequences, including early puberty.

Early puberty and its effects

Dr. Nguyen Trong Tin said that puberty is an important period of growth and development characterized by a complex process regulated by the neuroendocrine system. Precocious puberty is defined as the onset of pubertal development before the age of 8 in girls and 9 in boys.

In early puberty, height development is a factor that is seriously affected, when the child's bone age becomes "old" too soon, causing the child to grow taller than his age but stop growing earlier than other children.

"In addition, early puberty in children has a great impact on both physical and mental health. Early sexual development will make children isolated from their classmates, causing many psychological consequences. In addition, according to many studies, children with early puberty will have a risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and increased risk of breast cancer in adulthood," Dr. Tin shared.

Causes of early puberty

Precocious puberty includes two types: peripheral precocious puberty and central precocious puberty. For peripheral precocious puberty, it is necessary to find the cause of excessive secretion of sex hormones such as ovarian cysts, ovarian tumors, Leydig cell tumors, adrenal gland diseases, etc. and once the exact cause is found, the child's medical condition can be resolved soon.

For central precocious puberty, 80% of cases are idiopathic, meaning no cause can be found, the remaining 20% ​​are due to many different causes such as central nervous system abnormalities, gene mutations, etc.

Central precocious puberty is still being studied for its influencing factors, of which nutrition is a very important factor that many studies have found.

How does nutrition affect?

Dr. Nguyen Trong Tin also said: "Nutritional status is considered one of the important factors related to the development of puberty, including the mother's nutrition during pregnancy, the child's nutrition during infancy as well as the child's diet during childhood."

Speaking more clearly about the mother's nutritional factors during pregnancy, Dr. Tin said: "Some studies have discovered a correlation between the mother's obesity and the daughter's age of menstruation."

Specifically, there is growing evidence that high pre-pregnancy BMI (body mass index) and excessive weight gain during pregnancy are both associated with early puberty in girls. In addition, dietary intake of phytoestrogens during pregnancy is also thought to influence pubertal development in children.

Regarding postpartum nutrition in children, Dr. Tin said that breastfeeding plays an extremely important role and has a great influence on the child's later puberty.

"Currently, many health organizations around the world such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Academy of Pediatrics or the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics always emphasize the importance of breastfeeding in the first months of life, at least from 6-12 months of age. Breastfeeding has been proven to reduce the risk of early puberty in girls," Dr. Tin said clearly.

For children aged 2-12, the risk may come from energy imbalance, causing obesity. This is also the indirect cause leading to early puberty.

"In addition, although protein is very important for children's development, the use of large amounts of animal protein has also been shown to stimulate the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis through the secretion of IGF-1, and a pre-pubertal diet that is too rich in animal protein will risk leading to early puberty. Therefore, it is necessary to give children a balanced diet to get enough trace elements from meat and fish but not too much," added Dr. Tin.

Additionally, for the carbohydrate food group, studies have found that more frequent consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and artificially sweetened beverages is predicted to lead to earlier puberty, primarily due to increased BMI and effects on the hypothalamus.

"Early puberty causes many harmful effects, affecting children's psychological and physiological development. Therefore, we need to have knowledge on how to properly care for children to prevent diseases, and at the same time detect and treat diseases early," Dr. Tin recommended.