Childhood obesity increases heart disease risk later in life

Washington, Jan 27 (ANI): Obesity alone can increase the risk of future heart disease and stroke in kids, as young as seven years of age, according to a new study.

The study said that the danger persists even in the absence of other cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure.

"This new study demonstrates that the unhealthy consequences of excess body fat start very early. Our study shows that obesity alone is linked to certain abnormalities in the blood that can predispose individuals to developing cardiovascular disease early in adulthood," said Dr. Nelly Mauras, of Nemours Children's Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and senior author of the study.

"These findings suggest that we need more aggressive interventions for weight control in obese children, even those who do not have the co-morbidities of the metabolic syndrome," she added.

The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that raise the risk of developing heart disease, stroke and diabetes. It is being increasingly diagnosed in children as being overweight becomes a greater problem.

Although debate exists as to its exact definition, to receive a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, one must have at least three of the following characteristics- increased waist circumference (abdominal fat), low HDL ("good") cholesterol, high triglycerides (fats in the blood), high blood pressure and high blood glucose (blood sugar).

The researchers wanted to know if obesity could raise cardiovascular disease risk prior to the onset of the metabolic syndrome.

Thus, they screened more than 300 individuals ages 7 to 18 years and included only those without features of the metabolic syndrome. hey included 202 participants in the study: 115 obese children and 87 lean children as controls. Half of the children were prepubertal and the other half were in late puberty.

All study participants underwent blood testing for known markers for predicting the development of cardiovascular disease, which included elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, and abnormally high fibrinogen, a clotting factor, among others.

The authors found that obese children had a 10 fold higher CRP and significantly higher fibrinogen concentrations, compared with age- and sex-matched lean children.

The abnormalities occurred in obese children as young as age 7, long before the onset of puberty.

Mauras said that the results were striking, as the children were entirely healthy otherwise.

Although it is not yet known whether early therapeutic interventions can reverse high CRP and fibrinogen, she said it would be prudent for health care providers to advise more aggressive interventions to limit calories and increase activity in "healthy" overweight children, even before the onset of puberty.

"Doctors often do not treat obesity in children now unless they have other features of the metabolic syndrome. This practice should be reconsidered. Further studies are needed to offer more insight into the effects of therapeutic interventions in these children," said Mauras.

The stud will be published in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM). (ANI)