Heart health begins to decline by age 10 in children who lead unhealthy lives, putting them at risk of fatal heart attacks and strokes in adulthood, researchers warn.
Cardiovascular disease, which affects around 7.6 million Britons, is largely caused by lifestyle factors such as obesity, poor diet, smoking and lack of exercise.
Researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute have now identified the crucial age window to protect yourself from these factors, improving heart health into adulthood.
In the studypublished in JAMA Cardiology, researchers studied health data from more than 1,500 children ages 3 to 16 from Massachusetts.
The team assessed each child’s diet, physical activity, sleep duration, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and exposure to smoking, such as passive smoking, which can also increase the risk of heart disease.
The scientists also studied the blood sugar and cholesterol levels of children in childhood between 6 and 10 years and early adolescence between 11 and 16 years.
Using this data, they calculated a heart health score, which would indicate the child’s risk of having a heart attack later in life.
They found that cardiovascular health scores begin to decline around age 10 in all demographic groups that have poor diet and little exercise.
Risk factors for the disease include high blood pressure, abnormal blood sugar levels, elevated cholesterol and obesity from childhood
Researchers theorized that 10 years old could be the crucial age, because children in the study tended to eat less healthily and have poorer sleep quality at this point.
This may be related to the beginning of the transition to secondary school, as children increase their independence.
Getting enough exercise and eating a healthy diet to prevent obesity, especially between mid-childhood and early adolescence, can help improve cardiovascular health.
“Our study provides insight into the trajectory of cardiovascular health in early life, and offers a clear opportunity to improve the health of the nation’s children now and in the future,” said lead author Izzuddin Aris, assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School. at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.
Cardiovascular disease is usually associated with a buildup of fatty deposits in the blood vessels, which increases the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.
Being overweight, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are all risk factors for the disease.
The World Health Organization revealed in 2023 that 37 million children under the age of five worldwide are now overweight – four million more than at the turn of the century.
According to NHS figures, one in eight children aged two to ten in England are obese.
It comes after experts from the University of Cambridge found that high or fluctuating cholesterol levels in childhood increases the risk of a condition linked to heart disease called atherosclerosis.
Atherosclerosis is a narrowing of the arteries due to a buildup of fatty deposits over time, causing blockages in the blood supply, potentially causing fatal heart attacks and strokes.
In the study, the Cambridge team fed two groups of mice a high-fat diet, known to raise ‘bad’ cholesterol, either intermittently or continuously.
The researchers, who published their findings in Nature, then analyzed data from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study – a long-term study that tracks heart risks from childhood to adulthood.
More than 2,000 people recruited in the 1980s, between the ages of 3 and 12, had ultrasound scans of their carotid arteries – the main blood vessels that supply blood to the heart and brain – when they were about 30 years old and then again around age 50.
The team’s analysis found that people with high cholesterol in childhood were more likely to have the greatest buildup of plaque in the arteries.
The study led top heart experts to suggest that children as young as 15 should take statins – a cholesterol-lowering pill – to reduce their risk of serious heart disease in the future.