Sharon Kirkey
CanWest News Service

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Fat pre-teens have arteries of middle-aged smoker

OTTAWA -- Overweight pre-teens have the thick, stiff arteries of a 45-year-old smoker, according to new research that shows there's more going on with fat children than doctors may realize.

Researchers who tested 82 overweight and obese children found signs of "vascular dysfunction" in children as young as nine. Ultrasound pictures revealed their carotid arteries -- the arteries that feed blood to the brain -- were thickening, and that large blood vessels in their arms were not dilating properly.

The results "matched those of a 45-year-old adult who had been smoking for more than 10 years," lead researcher Dr. Kam Woo said in a statement issued by the American Heart Association. "Compared to normal-weight children, by adulthood they are three to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke before age 65."

Woo is chair and professor of medicine and therapeutics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Over the years, autopsy studies of children who died in car crashes and of young army recruits have revealed plaque deposits and fatty streaks in the coronary arteries starting in adolescence.

But this is one of the first "in vivo" studies to document blood vessel abnormalities in living children.

"If it's correct, and we are really seeing evidence of early changes in terms of changes of function of these blood vessels, and it's applicable to the coronary arteries, then it's a pretty scary state of affairs," said Dr. Claire LeBlanc, a Canadian Paediatric Society spokeswoman.

"Is it possible our children are going to start having coronary artery disease earlier than we are now?"

The good news is that the damage can be partially reversed through exercise and a healthier diet, starting with something as simple as eating more fruits and vegetables.

The study, published today in the journal Circulation, involved children in Hong Kong. But LeBlanc, chair of the pediatric society's advisory committee on healthy, active living, says "there's every reason to believe that we would find the same abnormalities here in Canada."

An estimated 37 per cent of Canadian children are overweight, and the proportion of obese children has tripled since 1981. One in four obese children has early signs of Type 2 diabetes, the kind once almost never seen in children.

Woo's team studied 54 boys and 28 girls, aged nine to 12. Based on the body mass index -- a ratio of weight to height -- more than half were obese, with twice as much body fat as would be expected. None of the children had a family history of early heart disease.

"They didn't actually see plaque, but they did find that there was thickening of the wall in the blood vessel in children who were obese," reports Dr. Michael Gewitz, a pediatric cardiologist at Westchester Medical Center in New York. The heavier the children were, the worse the artery damage.

LeBlanc says kids don't need a regimented exercise program to slim down.

"We really need to be getting kids back into the habit of doing fun things -- walking, cycling, walking the dog, playing games outside, going to the park. Doing things with the family and friends that are not necessarily structured play." She said sedentary children who are not exercising should aim for 30 minutes of exercise a day to start.

Another study suggests that too little fibre, not too many calories, is what's making kids fat.

U.S. researchers studied nearly 900 adolescents aged 11 to 15. They found that normal-weight children ate more high-fibre foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables than kids who were either at risk of obesity, or who were already overweight. The study is published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.