NEW YORK: A new study has found that obesity in adolescents is related with reduced heart function and excessive cardiac mass. Dr Giovanni de Simone of Federico II University Hospital School of Medicine, Naples, who carried out the study, says obese kids tend to become hypertensive and a combination of obesity and hypertension can be devastating.
Dr de Simone's team of researchers carried out studies on 460 adolescents from American Indian communities in Arizona, Oklahoma, North Dakota and South Dakota, examining their heart dimensions and functions, and found that 113 were overweight and 223 obese. Some 110 had high-normal blood pressure and 27 had high blood pressure. Ten were diagnosed with diabetes.
In the obese children, the size of the left ventricle was found enlarged compared to the normal-weight adolescents, and one third of the obese teenagers were classified as having the medical condition called left ventricular hypertrophy. What is alarming about the finding is that the mean age of these adolescents is less than 18 years.
The investigators reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology that early intervention during childhood and adolescence to reduce the prevalence of obesity and prevent the transition from overweight to overt obesity might represent a crucial step.
In a related editorial in the publication, Dr Stephan von Haehling from Imperial College School of Medicine, London, and colleagues wrote that "Obesity has been recognized as an important risk factor that contributes to the development of many different disease states worldwide.
"For young people with...established risk factors for future cardiovascular illness (like hypertension, hyperlipidemia or diabetes), it seems very likely that obesity confers a somewhat higher risk for death compared to people with normal weight."
Dr de Simone said the research has demonstrated that obesity in teenagers is just as dangerous as obesity in adults.
A report in the April 5 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association had revealed that obesity levels are peaking in American children. The report, based on National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted during 2003-2004, took the height and weight measurements of 4,000 U.S. children and adolescents and found that 33.6 per cent of children and adolescents were overweight.
There are also reports that type 2 diabetes is at an all-time high in American children.
