Teens just can’t catch a break in the health department.
Last week we learned, if nothing changes, today's obese kids will have heart attacks much earlier than their parents. http://bit.ly/9R3647 It’s because of the epidemic of obesity seen in children and adolescents today. As a result, if we are not successful and the obesity problem remains or – heaven help us – gets worse, our kids today will start having heart attacks by the time they hit their 30s and 40s.
Also, last week, we learned that excess stress during adolescence may be setting young people up for more mood disorders as adults. http://bit.ly/azJOrI If there is one thing more universal among young people today than obesity, it’s stress. So, that’s just great news! And we learned that kids with hypertension have more learning disabilities. http://bit.ly/cKX6PP Since obesity is tightly tied to the development of high blood pressure – well, you can see the problem.
Is There Any Good News?
Here at the American Heart Association meeting, investigators reported that maintaining a healthy lifestyle from young adulthood to middle age plays a huge role in achieving a low cardiovascular disease risk profile in middle age.
In other words, the solution to the more-heart-attacks-sooner problem of tomorrow is helping young people make more heart healthy choices today.
Here’s the data: Researchers studied the long-term follow-up of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Researchers wanted to know whether adopting a healthy lifestyle from young adulthood to middle age can lead to a low cardiovascular disease risk profile in middle age – we already know that your risk factors in middle age play a big role in how healthy or unhealthy your cardiovascular system is years later.
CARDIA included 2,498 black and white participants 18 to 30 years old in 1985 at baseline. Compared to their peers, a healthy lifestyle was one that included:
• Not being overweight or obese
• Having no or only moderate alcohol intake
• Eating a diet with more potassium, calcium and fiber
• A lower intake of saturated fat
• Being more physically active
• And never smoking cigarettes.
After 20 years, more than 60% percent of people with all five healthy lifestyle factors from young adulthood to middle age showed a much lower risk profile compared to the less than 6% of people with none of the healthy lifestyle factors.
In this study, risk profile was based on common factors that influence your heart health: blood cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, diabetes and history of heart attack. That means, for young people who had healthier lifestyles, they were less likely to later have major risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.
We know that middle-aged adults with fewer cardiovascular disease risk factors have a longer life expectancy, dramatically lower rates of heart disease, better quality of life, and lower health care costs as they age. The same would appear to true of young people, too.
More good news: overall, even in this age of obesity, the majority of young adults have a low cardiovascular risk profile; they don’t have hypertension, they don’t have high cholesterol levels, etc. The majority! Only about 7% of American middle-aged men and women satisfy the low cardiovascular disease risk profile.
So, young people are starting out way ahead of their parents – but they’ll lose that advantage quickly if they don’t change some of their lifestyle habits.
Bottom line: More emphasis should be devoted to encouraging healthy lifestyles among young adults.
Not sure how to talk to kids about food? Last week I noted the fine line between obesity and eating disorders. At the time, I recommended this post, from Psychology Today, on talking to kids about eating, food, and weight. http://bit.ly/9mPKby
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