Overweight children face heart risks as young as 3, study says
December 12, 2011 By Fred Tasker in Overweight and ObesityWhen children are overweight, heart-health risk factors such as dangerous cholesterol levels and artery inflammation can start as early as age 3, according to a University of Miami study published in this week's medical journal Obesity.
"There's clearly a link between weight and cardiovascular risk," said Sarah Messiah, a UM research assistant professor and lead author of the study. "When a doctor sees an overweight child at age 3, he has to talk to the parents about it. The negative health processes are not 20 years down the road - they're already starting."
Steven E. Lipshultz, another author of the study and chair of pediatrics at the UM Medical School, said: "This is a new concept, since many have felt that although children are obese, the health consequences do not manifest clinically until they are older."
The new study updates a 2009 paper by Messiah. The information in the study is culled from health records of 3,644 3-to-6-year-old children from the 1999-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, a nationwide databank.
Earlier studies had detected such problems, but mostly in children ages 8 and older. In the United States, 19 percent of children 2 to 18 are obese, and 30 percent are overweight, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We're seeing lots of children at risk for becoming diabetic, and it can happen in their 20s instead of their 40s," Messiah said.
The UM study measured children's waist circumference and body-mass index (BMI), which is calculated from a person's height and weight and is considered a good indicator of obesity, according to the CDC.
"This is the first time it's been documented in a multiethnic group like this," Messiah said.
The study showed sharp differences among racial and ethnic groups. In 6-year-old black and Hispanic boys and all 5-year-old girls, those with high BMI and waist size tended to have higher inflammation levels. In 3-year-old Hispanic girls and 5-year-old Hispanic boys, those with high BMI and waist size tended to have lower levels of HDL, the "good" cholesterol.
"We don't know why," she said. "It's probably a combination of genetics and behavior."
Messiah expressed opposition to a new proposal in the Florida Legislature, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Larry Metz, that might remove the requirement for Florida middle schools to offer physical education courses.
"Exercise is one way we can prevent these problems," she said. "To take that away in light of the obesity epidemic doesn't make a lot of sense."
Florida's American Heart Association on Monday also opposed Metz's bill, calling it "dangerous to our children."
And at AHA's November meeting in Orlando, the American Academy of Pediatrics publicized new guidelines calling for cholesterol screening as a routine part of regular well-child doctor visits for all children.
The academy had engaged a panel of experts who surveyed hundreds of previous studies and concluded in a new paper that, while family history and tobacco use are significant risk factors for future heart problems, obesity "tracks more strongly than any other risk factor."
It said 84 percent of people who were obese as children remained obese as adults.
And in November, Medicare announced for the first time it will pay for screenings and other services to prevent obesity in the 65-and-over patients it covers. Messiah said she hopes Medicaid eventually will agree to pay for such screenings for children.
"If the Medicare program works well, I hope Medicaid will do the same," she said.
(c)2011 The Miami Herald
Distributed by MCT Information Services
-
Children’s Belly Fat Increases More Than 65 Percent Since 1990s
Nov 09, 2006 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Obese and overweight women, children underestimate true weight
Mar 23, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
A high BMI in childhood linked to greater heart disease risk in adolescence
Nov 26, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Extreme obesity affecting more children at younger ages
Mar 18, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Obesity is a poor gauge for detecting high cholesterol levels in children
Aug 03, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Of mice and mental models: Neuroscientific implications of risk-optimized behavior in the mouse
May 25, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Limits to growth: Scientists identify key metastasis-enabling enzyme
May 22, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
0
-
Seeing is as seeing does: Spatially-structured retinal input in early development of cortical maps
Apr 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
1
-
Dreamless nights: Brain activity during nonrapid eye movement sleep
Apr 09, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (12) |
0
-
Take your time: Neurobiology sheds light on the superiority of spaced vs. massed learning
Mar 28, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (21) |
3
-
magnetic field from stream of protons
3 hours ago
-
Force on a particle constrained to move on the surface of a sphere
4 hours ago
-
Force in a magnetic coupling
14 hours ago
-
Sign of scalar product in electric potential integral?
21 hours ago
-
Heat engines: how can we yield work?
22 hours ago
-
Work done by us on the spring
May 25, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Classical Physics
More news stories
Mums-to-be missing out on benefits of water immersion
Queensland mums-to-be are being denied access to water immersion during labour even though research shows it shortens labour and reduces interventions.
Overweight and Obesity
May 24, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
Intrauterine devices, implants most effective birth control
A study to evaluate birth control methods has found dramatic differences in their effectiveness. Women who used birth control pills, the patch or vaginal ring were 20 times more likely to have an unintended pregnancy than ...
Overweight and Obesity
May 23, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
|
'Obesity genes' may influence food choices, eating patterns
Blame it on your genes? Researchers from The Miriam Hospital's Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center say individuals with variations in certain "obesity genes" tend to eat more meals and snacks, consume more calories ...
Overweight and Obesity
May 23, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
|
Scientists start explaining Fat Bastard's vicious cycle
Fat Bastard's revelation "I eat because I'm depressed and I'm depressed because I eat" in the Austin Powers film series may be explained by sophisticated neuroscience research being undertaken by scientists affiliated with ...
Overweight and Obesity
May 23, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
|
A systems approach to preventing obesity in early life
Currently more than 10% of preschoolers in the U.S. are obese and effective strategies that target pregnancy, infancy, and toddlers are urgently needed to stop the progression of the childhood obesity epidemic, ...
Overweight and Obesity
May 21, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
Keep food safety in mind this memorial day weekend
(HealthDay) -- Picnics, parades and cookouts are as much a part of Memorial Day weekend as tributes to the United States' war veterans.
Travel to high altitudes tied to Crohn's, colitis flare-ups
(HealthDay) -- People with inflammatory bowel disease, which includes Crohn's disease and colitis, may be at increased risk for flare-ups when they fly or travel to high altitudes for skiing or mountain climbing, ...
Family history of Alzheimer's affects functional connectivity
(HealthDay) -- Cognitively normal individuals with a family history of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) may display lower resting state functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) of the brain, ...
Transvaginal mesh op restores pelvic organ prolapse at price
(HealthDay) -- Transvaginal mesh (TVM) procedures are effective for anatomical restoration of pelvic organ prolapse (POP), but patients report a worsening of sexual function following surgery, according to ...
Of mice and mental models: Neuroscientific implications of risk-optimized behavior in the mouse
(Medical Xpress) -- Regardless of an organism’s biological complexity, every encephalized animal continuously makes under-informed behavioral choices that can have serious consequences. Despite its ubiquity, ...
Weight struggles? Blame new neurons in your hypothalamus
New nerve cells formed in a select part of the brain could hold considerable sway over how much you eat and consequently weigh, new animal research by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests in a study published in the May issue ...