Can an obese child or adolescent get heart disease?
We know from studies that have been done looking at blood vessels and hearts of young people who have died from tragic events not related to their heart, but who have died from auto accidents and homicide where the heart was thought to be absolutely fine and the young person was thought to be healthy, that atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, cholesterol deposits appear in young boys in this country in their teens and young women in their twenties. People we look at every day and never think they have atherosclerosis; they have hardening of the arteries. They already have coronary artery disease. So it’s important as parents or as educators to be sure that we actually do think about that when we look at young people, and that we create for them an environment in which is easier to be healthy, to eat a healthy diet, to be certain that they get exercise. That this begins in the school and in the home, and that it begins now, because a generation of children is growing up with r
