Obesity in mother can shorten child's lifespan by 17 years: study

The study also mentioned that children born to obese women may be at higher risk of chronic diseases.

Adverse effects of obesity on health have been widely discussed in various studies and experts have suggested that getting fit and shedding extra weight can be a key to curing a lot of health issues.

But apart from harm that overweight people do to their own health, a study says that obesity in mothers can actually cut the child’s lifespan by 17 years. The situation is raising concerns since a large number of women of child-bearing age are overweight.

Telomeres are structures at the end of each strand of DNA and they play a role in how many times cells can divide during a lifetime and the length of telomeres predict how long a child will live.

The study also mentions that children born to obese women are at a higher risk of chronic diseases and it strongly recommends that women must maintain a healthy weight at the time of pregnancy.