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American Kids' Blood Pressure Creeps Up

Posted Sep 11, 07 10:37 AM CDT in US,  Science & Health 

(Newser) – The ranks of US children with dangerously high blood pressure and hypertension have been growing for 20 years, reversing a decades-long trend, says a new study that tracks the effects of youth obesity. Hypertension, which usually doesn't develop until patients are in their 30s or 40s, is a leading cause of heart attack and stroke, the Washington Post reports.

More and more children are developing traditionally "adult" ailments such as type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol; a researcher calls the blood pressure findings "another piece of evidence suggesting that the obesity epidemic will likely turn into a heart disease epidemic." Less than 6% of American children were obese in 1963; by 2003, the figure had climbed to 17%.

Source Washington Post

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children  • obesity  • heart disease  • diabetes  • heart attack  • blood pressure  • childhood obesity  • stroke  • fat  • Americans  • cholesterol  • weight  • hypertension


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