Obese Children Have Damaged Arteries
Author: Mark Velov
Time for reading: ~1
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
According to data presented at this year's meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans, adolescents with problem weight have arteries similar to those of a person at least thirty years older.
According to data presented at this year's meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans, adolescents with problem weight have arteries similar to those of a person at least thirty years older. This only underscores the harm of obesity and its associated metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular complications. According to some observations, obesity in young men is a more serious cardiac risk factor than smoking.
The University of Kansas Medical School studied the condition of the carotid arteries among 70 children between the ages of 6 and 19, all with obesity. The thickness of the inner two layers - intima and media - was measured. It usually increases with age and is commensurate with the risk of a vascular accident. In the studied children, whose body mass index was above the 95th percentile for their age, the thickness of the arteries was observed, identical to that found in persons over 45 years of age. In these children, even higher triglycerides are found in the blood.
At this stage, the study is too small to provide statistically significant information, but is an occasion to conduct more research in this direction, as well as to clarify the reversibility of the observation in the normalization of weight.
The University of Kansas Medical School studied the condition of the carotid arteries among 70 children between the ages of 6 and 19, all with obesity. The thickness of the inner two layers - intima and media - was measured. It usually increases with age and is commensurate with the risk of a vascular accident. In the studied children, whose body mass index was above the 95th percentile for their age, the thickness of the arteries was observed, identical to that found in persons over 45 years of age. In these children, even higher triglycerides are found in the blood.
At this stage, the study is too small to provide statistically significant information, but is an occasion to conduct more research in this direction, as well as to clarify the reversibility of the observation in the normalization of weight.
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