Childhood Obesity May Increase Cardiovascular Risk

(January 27, 2010) - Being overweight as a child could mean heart problems as you get older. By as early as 7 years of age, being obese (Read about "Obesity") may raise a child's risk of future heart disease and stroke (Read about "Coronary Heart Disease" "Stroke"), even in the absence of other cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure (Read about "Hypertension: High Blood Pressure"), according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

"This new study demonstrates that the unhealthy consequences of excess body fat start very early," said Nelly Mauras, MD, senior author of the study. "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. 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." (Read about "Metabolic Syndrome")

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

Mauras and her colleagues wanted to know if obesity could raise cardiovascular disease risk prior to the onset of the metabolic syndrome. Researchers therefore screened more than 300 individuals ages 7 to 18 years and included only those without features of the metabolic syndrome. They 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. Obese children had a body mass index (a measure of body fat) above the 95th percentile for their sex, age and height.

All study participants underwent blood testing for known markers for predicting the development of cardiovascular disease. These included elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, and abnormally high fibrinogen, a clotting factor, among others. Obese children had a 10 fold higher CRP and significantly higher fibrinogen concentrations, compared with age- and sex-matched lean children, the authors reported. These abnormalities occurred in obese children as young as age 7, long before the onset of puberty.

The results were striking Mauras stated, as the children were entirely healthy otherwise.