HealtheTimes guides and inspires readers to be proactive about
their health and make informed decisions about every aspect of
wellness, from lifestyle and dietary choices to environmental
issues. It is brought to you by Carlson Labs In the News Obesity
and Heart Disease in Kids An obese child’s arteries may be just
as clogged as the arteries of a middle-aged adult, finds a
recent study. A buildup of plaque in the arteries puts kids at
risk for a heart attack or stroke as early as age 30. In the
study of 70 mostly obese children ages 6 to 19, researchers used
an ultrasound to measure the thickness of the kids’ artery walls
in the neck. “We wanted to gauge their vascular age,” says
Geetha Raghuveer, MD, MPH, referring to the age at which the
level of plaque in the arteries would be normal. In these
children, the vascular age was generally 30 years older than
their chronological age. Although the growing research linking
obesity with heart disease in children is alarming, Dr.
Raghuveer is hopeful. “A lot of thes