Fat Kids' Arteries. A Big Uh-Oh!

There's depressing news.. like the Congo, Darfur. the environment and the economy. It makes you sit lower in the lounge as the TV 'educates' you, go to bed ealy and wake up feeling like you've been drugged.

Then there's 'Uh Oh' news that gives you a wakeup call that you want to respond to, and are able to deal with and take advantage of.

The following an 'Uh Oh' item.

The neck arteries of obese children and teens look more like those of 45-year-olds, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2008.

“There’s a saying that ‘you’re as old as your arteries,’ meaning that the state of your arteries is more important than your actual age in the evolution of heart disease and stroke,” said Geetha Raghuveer, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine and cardiologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital. “We found that the state of the arteries in these children is more typical of a 45-year-old than of someone their own age.”

Using ultrasound to measure the thickness of the inner walls of the neck (carotid) arteries that supply blood to the brain, Dr Raguveer's team found our 'Uh Oh' moment.

It seems that increasing carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT) indicates the fatty buildup of plaque within arteries feeding the heart muscle and the brain, which of course, can lead to heart attack or stroke. The plumbing is blocking up.

Obviously, we're not designed for oday's environment we have created for ourselves. Some of our responses to that environment are maladaptive. Historically calorie malnutrition was the biggest killer of our ancestors. So we have genes that make us like food, especially fatty sweet food. As a result some kids have vascular systems that are undergoing accelerated aging.

The children’s “vascular age” — the age at which the level of thickening would be normal for their gender and race — was about 30 years older than their actual age, Dr. Raghuveer said.

So where's the 'Uh Oh'? in all that? Here's an item we can work with. A kid isn't so old that he or she isn't damaged beyond repair. A kid is adaptive. A kid wants to be accepted and will follow behaviour that rewards him with love and approval. A kid CAN be weaned off junkfood and bad physical habits.

Yes, yes, we've all heard that it's genetic and therefore.. or 'our whole family is obese'.. or 'I can't hurt him; he's such a good kid'.

But can we really hear what Dr Raghuveer is saying? The arteries - the plumbing of the body - are going to wear out THIRTY YEARS before your beautiful kid does! As so many people around the world chanted only last week;
"YES WE CAN!"