Inactive Kids Are Six Times More Likely To Have Heart Disease In Their Teen Years
It is a well-known fact that heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States. However with childhood obesity and inactivity on the rise, teens are now at risk for this deadly disease as well. In recent years metabolic syndrome, a combination of diseases that increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease and is commonly found in overweight adults, has begun to effect people in their teen years.
In order to uncover more about the early onset of metabolic syndrome, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill followed a group of 400 children between the ages of 7 and 10 for a seven-year period. Measurements of weight, height, body mass, body fat, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels were measured and participants were asked questions about their activity level and were given a fitness test. At the end of the study researchers found that those participants with three or more indicators of metabolic syndrome were six times more likely to have low fitness levels and five times more likely to have low levels of physical activity.
McMurray RG, et al. (2008). Adolescents with metabolic syndrome have a history of low tness and physical activity levels. Dynamic Medicine, 7, 5.
