Obesity Increases The Age Of Children's Arteries

as old as your arteries

Many doctors say that the best way to judge the overall health of a person is to look at their arteries. There is even a saying which is says that you are “as old as your arteries”. People who live long healthy lives tend to have better and healthier arteries than for example overweight people or smokers.

In a new research project done by Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City it was worryingly observed that the arteries in the necks of obese children were more like arteries of normal 45 year olds. The research was done by using ultrasound scans to measure the arterial thickness of neck or carotid arteries which are responsible for the blood supply to the brain. In all Doctor Geetha Raghuveer and colleagues examined a group of 70 children between the ages of six and nineteen.

Thick arteries often an indication of a build up of fatty deposits which block the blood supplies to the various organs around the human body. If arteries become too blocked up and restricted they can cause heart attacks and strokes. The researchers said that the obesity was causing a big increase in the ‘vascular age’ of the children and thus setting them up for potential heart disease problems in later life.

The research was announced at the Annual General Meeting of the American Heart Association and will add to the weight of evidence that obesity even at a young age is extremely harmful.

Doctor Raghuveer explained that more research would need to be done to properly determine whether it was possible to reduce the vascular age of obese children by getting them to exercise and lose weight. It was also noted that the build up of fatty deposits in the arteries of children tend not to be calcified which is often the case in older people. This means that it is easier for the arteries to be restored back to health and therefore for the damage to be only temporary.