14 DAY TRIAL // Obese children have stiff blood vessels, a phenomenon which is typical for middle-aged people with cardiovascular diseases, said Dr. Kevin Harris today, at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010, co-hosted by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Dr Harris, who works at British Columbia Children's Hospital, carried out a study on 13-year-old children, out of which 63 were obese and 55 had a normal weight.
Alongside colleagues, the blood pressure was taken, the lipids were evaluated and the body mass index was measured, before the children underwent echocardiography, or ultrasound, of the heart and blood vessels – a test used to see the Pulse Wave Velocity in the aorta.
What the researchers discovered was that “the systolic blood pressure was only marginally higher in these obese children,” according to Dr. Harris, and blood lipid levels (total, HDL and LDL cholesterol) were normal.
Still, the ultrasound of the heart showed that the arterial health of the obese children was abnormal, and even if their blood lipid levels and blood pressure were not so different from the control group, the elasticity of their aorta was affected.
“We were surprised to find that these obese children already have stiff blood vessels,” Dr. Harris said.
“Aortic stiffness is an early indicator of cardiovascular disease in obese children,” and it is as if the aging process in their aorta has been accelerated.
“The normal aorta has elastic qualities that buffer the flow of blood, [and] when that elasticity is lost, aortic stiffness results – a sign of developing cardiovascular disease.
“Aortic stiffness is associated with cardiovascular events and early death,” added Dr Harris, at the meeting.
The aorta is the largest artery in the human body because its role is to carry oxygen-rich blood to all the other arteries and also to be a buffer for the pumping action of the heart.
People with stiff aorta are usually older people, at risk for future cardiac events and high mortality, so seeing this phenomenon in children is very serious, said Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Beth Abramson.
“Our kids are at risk,” she said, and “poor nutrition and inactivity are threatening their health and well-being.
“We must rethink the lifestyle standards we have accepted as a society to protect the future health of our kids.”
Over the past 25 years, the obesity rate has tripled and it keeps rising, and as it has been proven, overweight or obese children risk heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.