Heart health begins to deteriorate as early as age 10 in children who lead unhealthy lives, putting them at risk of fatal heart attacks and strokes in adulthood, researchers have warned.
Cardiovascular disease, which affects around 7.6 million Britons, is mainly caused by lifestyle factors such as obesity, poor diet, smoking and lack of exercise.
Researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute have identified the crucial age window to protect against these factors, improving heart health well into adulthood.
In it studyPublished in JAMA Cardiology, researchers studied health data from more than 1,500 children ages 3 to 16 in Massachusetts.
The team evaluated each child’s diet, physical activity, sleep duration, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and exposure to smoking, such as passive smoking, which can also increase the risk of heart disease. .
The scientists also studied the blood sugar and cholesterol levels of children in mid-childhood, ages 6 to 10, and early adolescence, ages 11 to 16.
Using this data, they calculated a heart health score, which is said to indicate the child’s risk of suffering a heart attack in the future.
They found that cardiovascular health scores begin to decline around age 10 in all demographic groups who have a poor diet and get little exercise.
Risk factors for the disease, such as high blood pressure, abnormal blood sugar levels, high cholesterol, and obesity since childhood.
The researchers theorized that age 10 may be the crucial age because it is at this point that the children in the study tended to eat less healthily and sleep of poorer quality.
This may be due to the beginning of a transition to secondary school, as children increase their independence.
Getting plenty of exercise and eating a healthy diet to prevent obesity, especially between mid-childhood and early adolescence, may help improve cardiovascular health.
“Our study provides insights into the trajectory of cardiovascular health in the first years of life, establishing a clear window of opportunity to improve the health of the country’s children now and in the future,” said senior author Izzuddin Aris, professor assistant in demographic medicine at Harvard Medical School. at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.
Cardiovascular disease is often associated with the buildup of fatty deposits within the arteries, which increases the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.
Being very overweight, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol are risk factors for the disease.
The World Health Organization revealed in 2023 that 37 million children under five are now overweight worldwide: four million more than at the beginning of the century.
According to NHS figures, one in eight children aged between two and ten in England is obese.
It comes after experts at the University of Cambridge found that high or fluctuating cholesterol in childhood increased the risk of a heart disease-related condition called atherosclerosis.
Atherosclerosis is a narrowing of the arteries due to the buildup of fatty deposits over time, causing blockages in the blood supply and triggering potentially fatal heart attacks and strokes.
In the study, the Cambridge team fed two groups of mice a high-fat diet, which is known to increase “bad” cholesterol, either intermittently or continuously.
The researchers, who published their findings in Nature, then analyzed data from the Cardiovascular Risk Study in Young Finns, a long-term study that tracks heart risks from childhood to adulthood.
More than 2,000 people recruited during the 1980s, between the ages of 3 and 12, underwent ultrasounds of their carotid arteries (major blood vessels that supply blood to the heart and brain) when they were around 30 years old and then again. around 50.
The team’s analysis found that those with high childhood cholesterol levels were most likely to have the greatest plaque buildup in their arteries.
The study led leading heart experts to suggest that children as young as 15 should take statins (a cholesterol-lowering pill) to reduce the risk of serious heart disease later in life.