Private MD News

More young people suffer from high cholesterol

Category: Heart Health and Cholesterol

Childhood obesity is sweeping across the nation and having disastrous health effects. Increasingly doctors are reporting an increase in unhealthy cholesterol test scores from their pediatric patients, which could put these individuals at risk for a lifetime of poor heart health.

A doctor in the UK recently warned parents that their children need to take steps to improve their heart health and lower their cholesterol levels before they do long-term damage to their cardiovascular system, according to the Daily Mail.

"We're seeing 13-year-olds with a lipid (cholesterol) profile you would find in a 50-year-old and 8- to 9-year-olds with high blood pressure. It means big trouble," Dr. Lee Hudson of the Great Ormand Street Hospital told the news source.

He added that several years of high cholesterol during adolescence can do permanent damage to the heart, even if the child improves their diet at later stages of their life.

The situation in the U.S. is no better. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that just under 20 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds are obese and at risk for cardiovascular complications.