Healthy childhood – healthy old age

Five risk factors in childhood increase the likelihood of stroke and heart attack after 40 years

Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+

Almost half a century of research has shown that certain symptoms and habits in childhood are a predictor of heart attack and stroke in adulthood. The disappointing findings emphasize the need to monitor nutrition and activity throughout life and especially in children for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

The study involved almost 39 thousand people from Australia, Finland and the USA, who were followed at the age of three to nineteen years for 35-50 years. Scientists have identified five risk factors that, individually or in combination, increased the likelihood of stroke and heart attack after 40 years, including deaths.

These included: body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as smoking status.

The results are published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Jacobs et al., Childhood Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Adult Cardiovascular Events) – WM.

A brief retelling of the article can be read in the press release University of Minnesota.

Indicators that differed from the norm increased the risk of cardiovascular events in more than half of the volunteers. Some were nine times more likely than participants with lower-than-average risk factors.

"We already know that children at the age of five have early signs of fatty deposits in the arteries, so the results are not unexpected," commented the author of the work, Terence Dwyer. 

In his opinion, surgery has significantly improved modern treatment, but the main impact on health depends on prevention. Correction of nutrition, smoking cessation, increased activity and taking certain medications are useful for adults, but now it is obvious that prevention should begin already in childhood, he added.

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