Ear Infections And Obesity

Ear Infections And Obesity

South Korean scientists have shown that there is a connection between one kind of ear infection and body fat in children. However, this research is not accepted by some specialists in USA.

Dr. Seung Geun Yeo, a co-author of the study carried out in South Korea, is a researcher at Kyung Hee University in Seoul and said that obesity in shildren should be reduced to prevent ear infection.

Ear infections are very common in children – almost 8 or 9 of every 10 children have it. The doctors say that the middle ear is the cause as it does not drain the fluids completely while it is developing.

Usually doctors prescribe antibiotics to treat ear infection but it is feared now that the germs are developing immunity to the drugs.

A new study was conducted where researchers study two groups of kids aged two to seven. The 155 children involved in the study had tubes placed in their ears to help them drain the fluids and recover from the ear infection. The other 118 children were hospitalized for a different reason. They were found to be suffering from a kind of ear infection known as otitis media with effusion. The usual symptoms of ear infection which are fever and ear ache are not present in this kind of ear infection.

Based on the BMI (body mass index) – a ratio of weight to height – the kids who had ear infection were fatter than those children who were not suffering from ear infection. This shows that extra fat increases the risk of ear infections. The total cholesterol was also higher for those with ear infections.

This study was published in the April issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

Two American ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialists said that they were not impressed with the study made by the South Korean researcher.

An otolaryngologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and author of Sinus Relief Now, Dr. Jordan S. Josephson, said that there is a probable connection between childhood obesity and ear infections. However, Dr. Jack Paradise, professor of pediatrics and otolaryngology at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine, said that there are no hard facts suggesting the link between childhood obesity and ear infections, and that the research was incomplete. Dr. David Darrow of Children’s Hospital of The King‘s Daughters in Norfolk, VA agrees with Paradise, saying that there is no physiological explanation given by the study for why obesity might be connected to ear infections.