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It is well -known that obesity may be related to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and ultimately death. But now, a new Dutch study links severe obesity for cardiovascular risk factors, even in children as young as 2 years.
The national study in the Netherlands found that two-thirds (67%) of severely obese children already have at least one heart disease risk factor: high blood pressure, high LDL ( "bad") cholesterol, low HDL ( "good") cholesterol, or high total cholesterol, high triglycerides, high fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes
the data are from clinical records doctors across the country. from July 2005 to July 2007, was asked every pediatrician working in a general hospital in the Netherlands to report all new cases of severe obesity in children aged 2 to 18 (with the definition "severe obesity" varying by age and sex). Then, a group known as the Dutch Paediatric surveillance unit compiled the figures and called on pediatricians to report the age, sex, ethnicity and family circumstances of each case as well as measurements of blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides. A total of 500 cases of severe childhood obesity have been reported.
Of course, in the US too, there are signs of early heart-disease development in young overweight. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that, like the Netherlands, about two-thirds of obese American teens have at least one cardiovascular risk factor. More alarming, the study found that among American teenagers, even those that are not currently overweight, about a quarter have diabetes or pre-diabetes.
What is most remarkable about the new Dutch study, however, is that it is heart disease signs, even in children much younger. Among the severely obese Dutch boys and girls ages 2 to 12, 62% had one or more risk factors. About half of these young people were hypertensive.
Writing in the medical journal Archives of Disease in Childhood Dutch researchers note that among the hundreds of children diagnosed with severe obesity, "One child was obese because of a medical issue, "a hypothalamic tumor. The rest, it seems, instead obese because of unhealthy lifestyle -. A risk factor that continues to spread worldwide
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