Heart symptoms in obese children

"More efforts must be made to get children to lose weight"

Severely overweight youngsters show signs of artery damage which causes heart disease and strokes in later life, tests have shown.

Children in the UK are fatter than they have ever been with more than a million children under 16 now being classified as obese.

This is something to be really concerned about

Dr Frankie Robinson
British Nutrition Foundation

Experts warn that if greater efforts are not made to help children lose weight there will be an unprecedented increase in the number of adulthood heart attacks and strokes.

Nutrition experts believe the key to the problem is lack of exercise and activity in youngsters aged between six and 18.

It is well-documented that obese children go on to develop cardiovascular disease, but this is the first time experts have found that the damage which causes these conditions actually begins in childhood.

'Striking difference'

The study, carried out by Dr Patrick Tounian, from the Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at the Armand-Trousseau Hospital in Paris, compared the arteries of 48 obese children against those of 27 non-obese youngsters.

The results of the study, detailed in the Lancet, revealed a "striking" difference in the stiffness and elasticity of the arterial wall and the function of the lining of the arteries.

The arteries of obese children were found to be much stiffer and more damaged than those of their non-obese counterparts.

It is known that stiffening of the arteries can lead to heart disease and stroke.

Dr Tounian acknowledged that paediatricians faced great difficulty in getting obese children to lose weight, but said greater success was imperative.

He said: "The current large increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity will translate into a rise in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality unless we improve our management of obesity."

Dr Tounian added that it had not yet been established whether or not the arterial damage found in obese children's arteries could be reversed.

Lack of exercise

Dr Frankie Robinson, from the British Nutrition Foundation, said: "This is something to be really concerned about.

"It is very likely with the current rate of obese children in this country that we are storing up for huge health problems in adulthood.

"One of the key findings in a survey carried out by the National Diet and Nutrition survey published last year was that children were largely inactive."

Dr Robinson said 40% of boys and 60% of girls were found to spend less than the recommended one hour per day in physical activity.

"The main action to be taken to reduce childhood obesity" she said, "is to increase the amount of activity and perhaps some dietary intervention alongside that."

Dr Robinson said the lack of activity was due to a number of factors, not least the issue of safety.

"Many parents are too afraid to let their children cycle or walk to school anymore and also to let them play outside - simply because they are too worried about their safety."