Exercise alone is not sufficient for good health...a person can look "in shape" and yet still be throwing down unhealthy food in the pie hole. Look at some of the foods we as Americans eat on a daily basis...and we wonder why our bodies do not respond well? I am going to school for holistic nursing...I have been interested in the energy systems of the body and how these systems need to be kept fine-tuned to keep the organs of our bodies healthy. How we eat is a lot like how we fuel our vehicles. We would not think of putting a cup of muck in our fuel tank or the vehicle would not run and incur damage...the same goes for how we treat our bodies with foods we eat...if we put crap food into our bodies, we will not function properly and will incur damage. Notice, I did not say MAY incur damage...this is a definite. The strange thing is, we tend to treat our vehicles better than we treat our own bodies...this does not make sense. Exercise WITH a consistent healthy diet will yeild good results. Taijiquan and/or Qigong exercises are excellent for energy exercises for our bodies.
Obese Kids Have Middle-Aged Arteries
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Youngsters most at risk in the study were those who were obese, with body mass index or BMI at or above the 95th percentile, and those who had abnormally high cholesterol levels, including either too much of the so-called "bad" LDL cholesterol, or too little of the "good" HDL cholesterol.
In addition, some children and teens had levels of fat chemicals known as triglycerides far above optimum levels.
'It was just alarming'
That group included Nick Calvert, a 17-year-old high school junior from Kansas City, Mo. His triglycerides topped out at more than 500 milligrams per deciliter, nearly triple the recommended 150 mg/dl that is considered acceptable.
"Well, it was very upsetting," said Nick's mother, Lisa Calvert, 41, a homemaker and mother of three who long ago stopped cooking with butter. "It was just alarming. I felt like I needed to sit down and talk to him."
Nick was stocky, but not obese, weighing at 182 pounds on a 5-foot-9 frame. But he's been struggling with genetically high cholesterol levels since he was 2, and a typical teen diet didn't help.
"I'd go out with my friends and they'd eat and I'd eat, too," said Nick, who acknowledged a fondness for burgers and pop.
When the ultrasound also detected thickening in his carotid arteries, Nick and his family got scared. He signed up with a personal trainer and started watching his diet, swapping burgers for grilled chicken and soda for water and tea.
"If I don't do it, I could have a heart attack or stroke at a younger age," said Nick, who has lost 20 pounds in the past few months, dropping him to 162 pounds.
That kind of proactive attitude is vital, said Dr. Samuel S. Gidding, chief of pediatric cardiology at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del.
Children and teens don't typically suffer heart attacks, but they can be at risk for early signs of heart disease, said Gidding. He noted that Raghuveer's work confirms previous autopsy studies that showed a strong link between budding heart disease and risk factors in young people.
Changing diet and increasing exercise can slow and perhaps stop deterioration, he said. Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended cholesterol-lowering drugs for kids as young as 8, Gidding said he's waiting to release new guidelines through the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NHLBI, next year.
In the meantime, the new research is a reminder to take steps to prevent obesity and high cholesterol before children's arteries grow older than their years, Raghuveer said.
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