Early Puberty Rates Cause for Alarm in China

Check out this article from Xinhuanet.com:

Children in China's main cities are reaching puberty too early - a condition known as sexual precocity - and at a much higher rate than those in Western countries.

A Beijing doctor, who runs the city's first sexual precocity clinic, said her research into the condition showed that in Shanghai, the rate was as high as 1 percent.

"That is amazing because the rate in most Western countries is between 0.02 and 0.01 percent," said Kong Yuanyuan, whose clinic is at the Beijing Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital.

"There is no accurate data for Beijing but I think it will be similar to Shanghai."

Kong said an increase in estrogen intake by children, especially girls, might be the main cause.

Foods that contain high amounts of estrogen include some types of milk, silkworm chrysalis and tonics that restore or increase body tone.

"Cosmetics or eating vegetables treated to mature quickly, and eating fruits out of season, may also be the cause, as well as sleeping with the light on."

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