Fat Kids Have The Arteries Of 45-Year-Olds, Study Shows

NEW ORLEANS — Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities that greatly raise their risk of heart disease, say doctors who used ultrasound tests to take a peek inside.

"As the old saying goes, you're as old as your arteries are," said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children's Hospital in Kansas City, who led one of the studies. "This is a wake-up call."

The studies were reported Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference.

About a third of American children are overweight and one-fifth are obese. Many parents think that "baby fat" will melt away as kids get older. But research increasingly shows that fat kids become fat adults, with higher risks for many health problems.

"Obesity is not benign in children and adolescents," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a former heart association president and cardiologist at the University of Colorado-Denver. It is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended cholesterol-lowering drugs for some kids, he noted.

Raghuveer wanted to see if early signs of damage could be documented. She and colleagues used painless ultrasound tests to measure the thickness of the wall of a major neck artery in 70 children, ages 10 to 16. Almost all had abnormal cholesterol and many were obese.

No one knows how thick a 10-year-old's artery should be, since they're not regularly checked for signs of heart disease, so researchers used tables for 45-year-olds, who often do get such exams.

The kids' "vascular age" was about 30 years older than their actual age, she found.

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A separate study tied childhood obesity to abnormal enlargement of the left atrium, one of the chambers of the heart. Enlargement is a known risk factor for heart disease, stroke and heart rhythm problems.

Julian Ayer, a researcher at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney Australia, did ultrasound exams on 991 seemingly healthy children ages 5 to 15. He saw a clear link between rising weight and size of the left atrium.

A third study by Dr. Walter Abhayaratna of Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, also used ultrasound tests and found impairment in the heart's ability to relax between beats in children who were overweight or obese.

The study involved the first 150 children participating in a larger community-based study.

Earlier research he helped conduct found more rigid arteries in such children _ a possible sign of plaque deposits starting to form.

"Even at this young age of 10, you can have children who have got arterial stiffness who are comparable to 30- and 40-year-olds," he said.

Dr. Michael Schloss, a New York University heart disease prevention specialist, said the evidence shows obesity is more than a cosmetic issue for children.

"If you've seen what's on the menu for most school lunches, these findings are no surprise," he said. "The time has come to seriously deal with the issue of childhood obesity and physical inactivity on a governmental and parental level."

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On the Net:

Heart meeting: http://www.americanheart.org

Comments

[JohnDrake6]

The ubiquitous 20 oz. bottle of cola contains 250 calories.

[marlovian]

This story originates in New Orleans, and, yet, there is no reference to any study regarding the danger to vampires who ingest high cholesterol blood. Odd.

[plooger]

Uh-oh. Then whose arteries do fat 45-year-olds have?

[Horus]

LOL. I was thinking the same thing. Also what kind of parents allowed their fat kids to go taking the arteries of 45 year olds and doing god know what with them?! Its irresponsible is what it is!

[bennybeaver]

whoops I posted twice, hey it is tough to get old

[joehosophat]

The title is so negative. It should read: "45-Year-Olds Have The Arteries Of Fat Kids." That way, everyone feels better about themselves.

[bennybeaver]

I raised three children and now my grandchildren are teenagers, I have long been curious as to why parents would allow their children to become fat. It all starts with what you buy at the store and proceeds from there.

Do we not owe our children the best and healthiest fututre we can provide?
When did that ideal get lost in favor of snacks and video games. Mind you my grandchildren have video games, computers, ipods ect., but they also participate in sports, and are limited in the time allowed to sit on their butts.

And Both of my sons and their wives work.

[squander123]

The answer is simple enough:
1) eat smaller portions;
2) get some exercise, even if it's just 30 minutes a day of brisk walking;
3) never eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognise as food.

The problem is that all western countries but especially the US have come to be structurally opposed to at least some of the solutions listed above. The size of portions served in US restaurants is insane (although piles of food that large look so revolting I instantly lose my appetite when I see my waiter bearing down on me: but then I'm only ever visiting, and if I lived there I guess I'd soon get to think of those portions as 'normal'. Getting even minimal exercise as part of everyday life in the US is often difficult: I walk a brisk 15-20 minutes each way between the train station and my office every day, but I realise that's not an option for most Americans. And as for trans-fats, GM food etc: as a previous poster has said, these are banned across the EU, which makes it that bit easier to avoid food my great-grandmother wouldn't recognise.

Although the food industry needs shaking up, I think the car-culture may need even more shaking before this problem will be addressed successfully.

[bennybeaver]

My question is, how can parents look at their over weight children and not be concerned.
I have raised three children and now have teenage grandchildren. It was my, and now is my children's responsibility to assure children have healthy meals, snacks and exercise.
(both parents work in both families)
When did we lose our way in raising our children, or what we feed our children, at the cost of a healthy future?

[Horus45]

I hate to belabor the point but, people must become more aware of the adverse health effects caused by consuming High Fructose Corn Syrup.
In my opinion HFCS is poison and should be avoided completely!
I have cut it out of my diet and my health has vastly improved.

A few months ago I wrote to the makers of Oroweat Bread and told them that their commercials were misleading with their claim of living a more "Healthful" life by eating Oroweat Bread.
I told them that of all the different types of bread made by Oroweat only 3 different types contain no HFCS and that the health concerns of HFCS were backed up by scientific data.
Their healthy claims were bogus as long as they continued using HFCS.

Yesterday I received a letter from the makers of Oroweat and low and behold they state that "Now All Oroweat Breads are HFCS Free".
They said letters like mine from many other concerned consumers made them decide to stop using HFCS!
Now we just need to get the rest of American companies to stop using it as well.

[Horus]

Hey nice name!

[javaman]

ignorant parents with no parenting skills, no concept as to what proper nutrition is, no time or want to talk to their rug rats, don't read to them, don't engage them, willfully support their unhealthy life style.

this is the sum total of the moronization of our country.

lard asses that don't exercize, nor have no want to know of the world around them.

ignorance is indeed bliss until they croak from a massive heart attack at 18.

land of the stupid, home of the naive.

[bsc]

yep ever see the movie Idiocracy? its looking unfortunately like a good predictor of where we are heading.

[jeffp26]

Ah, the pleasures of meat-eating greasy food loving animals.

I truly think the health care system in this country needs to "tax" people with no self-control, whether they smoke, eat too much, or do other dangerous things like taking drugs.

[scottowego]

They already tax the smokers. I KNOW!

[bennybeaver]

I also know, and Oregon is looking at raising the tax again, and also raise the gas tax to fund some type of project, I think roads, according to our governer.

[surfcitysteven]

I learned from Thom Hartman that if you put a graph charting the introduction of Genetically Modified corn syrup into our diets, (pepsi, coke, pancake syrup) it lines up with a graph of the increase in childhood obesity. We aren't designed to digest that junk.

[mphalen]

That is one of the big reasons. These things are banned in many European countries. Along with all the other chenicals they put into processed foods.

[jerrypenguin]

Feed the kids loads of television, chizie-whizie snacks, fast food, video games, etc. Eliminate any stressful physical inconvenience. Isolate them from the wind, rain, snow, or heat. Do not give them an intellectual, social, or physical challenge. The results are obvious. The results are costly to the child and represents a societal loss. Perhaps, the results may be profitable for some providers of snacks, entertainment, and heroic medical services.

I am a gray beard who has bicycled across a continent, climbed mountains, hiked through deserts, and knows the taste and smell of saltwater. I feel no sense of pride when I can physically outperform a twenty year old male. The only feeling is sorrow.

[amaycatbaker]

Having just become vegetarian, because my youngest children have food allergies, this study scares me. As it should other parents. I hope I can reverse the meat diet that I had my family on, so my children live a long healthy life.

[Horus45]

Be careful in feeding your children Soy, Americans are not accustomed to having a regular diet of soy and it can cause some health problems in those who are susceptible.

Soy was causing problems with my thyroid and I had to stop eating foods made with soy.
It is more problematic with young boys because of the naturally occurring estrogen like hormone Phytoestrogen that it contains.

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/soy_studies.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean#Health_risks

[amaycatbaker]

Thank you.

[closet librarian]

Also note that legumes and lentils are a wonderful source of protein. Legumes should be eaten (if possible) with a whole grain - brown rice, whole wheat bread, etc, because the combination of the two help the body to more readily use the available protein.

[amaycatbaker]

Thank you.

[DigitalVapor]

I dont know, but I am 27, and I have been fat for the last 7 years and have crossed the 200 lb threshold. This scares the hell out of me, cause if a 10 year old can have an arterial age comparible to a 45 year old, then my arteries must be old enough to run for president and launch smears against Obama lol! But seriously something needs to be done about this obesity epidemic.

[jeffp26]

My friend, you need to get on a diet, and learn to enjoy exercising.

The benefits are many, including a much more enjoyable sex life. Focus on that!!!!! And take care.

[IowaGirl]

Dear DigitalVapor,

If you restrict processsed foods to 10 % of your daily diet (or less, but that's pretty tough in the toxic food culture that surrounds us), you will lose weight. I promise you.

Chips, cookies, candies, cakes, "white" pasta dishes, any beverages containing sugars, creamy stuff like dips and ice creams. And anything your great-grandparents wouldn't recognize as food, as Michael Pollan put it in one of his books (Cheez Whiz! Cereal shaped and tasting like doughnuts!). Save it for the weekend, if necessary, but minimize this and your pounds will melt away. Fast food and convenience food are what is meant by processed foods--they come out of the lab and the factory, not the fields and trees.

And if you fill up on fiber, you'll automatically be eating good stuff (fruits, veggies, whole grains). Good food DRIVES OUT bad food. There's no room in your stomach if it's full of high-quality nutritious foods--I learned that during pregnancy).

Good luck. Start today. When you slip up, don't look backward and feel guilty, just look forward to the success possible in the next hour.

[tangenjill]

Yikes...no wonder trans fats are being banned. What's in fastfood, anyway?