Obesity in adolescence is associated with reduced heart
function and excessive cardiac mass, according to a new
study.
"Many of these kids will become hypertensive and the
association of obesity with hypertension might be devastating,"
Dr. Giovanni de Simone from "Federico II" University Hospital
School of Medicine in Naples stated. "This is only partially
a medical problem, but a social and political problem."
The researcher and his colleagues in Italy and the USA
examined heart dimensions and function in 460 adolescents
from American Indian communities in Arizona, Oklahoma,
North Dakota and South Dakota as part of the Strong Heart
Study.
Of the 460 participants, 113 were overweight and 223
were obese. Also, 110 had high-normal blood pressure and
27 had high blood pressure. Ten were diagnosed with diabetes,
the team reports in the Journal of the American College
of Cardiology.
The size of the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber
of the heart, was enlarged in the obese and overweight
adolescents compared to the normal-weight adolescents,
the findings indicate, and one third of the obese teenagers
were classified as having an actual medical condition
called left ventricular hypertrophy.
"Early intervention during childhood and adolescence
to reduce the prevalence of obesity and prevent the transition
from overweight to overt obesity might represent a crucial
step," the investigators say, in order to avert the development
of heart disease.
"Obesity has been recognized as an important risk factor
that contributes to the development of many different
disease states worldwide," write Dr. Stephan von Haehling
from Imperial College School of Medicine, London, and
colleagues in a related editorial.
"For young people with...established risk factors for
future cardiovascular illness (like hypertension, hyperlipidemia
or diabetes), it seems very likely that obesity confers
a somewhat higher risk for death compared to people with
normal weight," the editorialists conclude.
SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology,
June 6, 2006.
