A new study has revealed that health and habits during childhood and teenage years affect the health of individuals in adulthood and how long they live.
The study evaluated 40,000 participants over four decades
Nearly 40,000 participants from the US, Australia, and Finland have been enrolled in the International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohorts Consortium Outcomes Study. From the 1970s to the 1990s, they enrolled the participants as children and have monitored them since then.
The researchers looked at the impact of five risk factors, including smoking in youth, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, total cholesterols, and triglyceride level.
The researchers monitored all of these individuals, who were on average 46 years old, from 2015 to 2019. They discovered that over 800 of the individual had suffered a cardiac event (such as a heart attack/stroke), with over 300 of them dying.
Once the researchers compared the results to the five components’ values, they discovered they were actually risk factors.
The chance of heart attack was nearly tripled in individuals who had high than usual scores for all risk variables. The most significant risk factor was smoking. Being at risk, one didn’t have to have all five; for instance, persons who were obese while young were more than three times more prone to develop cardiovascular disease.
This is not surprising, but as a parent, you can follow the steps to ensure the child is on the right track.
- Establish if the child is at risk
Be keen on the numbers when taking the child for checkups. Ensure you know their BMI, blood pressure, triglycerides, and cholesterol.
- Take the results of this study seriously.
Suppose your child has elevated levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, blood pressure, or BMI. Talk to the doctor. Irrespective of the numbers, ensure your child is having a healthy diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, fruits, lean protein, and healthy fats.
- Speak about the dangers of smoking with the child
Kids should be told about the dangers of smoking early before their teenage years when peer pressure becomes prominent.
