How Changing Children's Lifestyles Can Help Keep Their Heart Healthier
By Lifesaver Education
With the increasing levels of childhood obesity, more and more children are becoming at risk for heart disease. Some children have blood pressure or cholesterol levels high enough that they may need to take medication to lower them. However, children can make changes to their lifestyles to keep their heart healthy and help lower their risk for heart disease later in life.
A recent study found that children, regardless of their initial risk level for heart disease, can lower their cholesterol levels, their blood pressure levels and their heart disease risk by making healthy lifestyle changes and continuing with these changes as they got older. These include not smoking, eating healthier, losing weight if overweight and becoming more physically active. Improvements in socioeconomic status also decreased heart disease risk.
On the other hand, if children start smoking or continue smoking, are sedentary, gain weight, increase their body fat levels and follow unhealthy diets, their blood pressure, cholesterol levels and heart disease risk are all likely to increase by the time they reach adulthood. Children who were at high risk for heart disease at the beginning of the study who didn't make any healthy changes continued to be at high risk for heart disease twenty years later.
Parents, medical professionals and educators need to make this link clear to children, and act as good examples showing children how to live a healthy lifestyle. Families should work together to make healthy changes so all family members improve their health. For example, parents can teach children how to cook healthy meals and what makes a healthy snack, and the whole family can take after dinner walks or play active games together to increase their physical activity levels. Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and making healthy lifestyle choices is one of the best ways to prevent this medical condition. To find out more about how to prevent heart disease, reigster for a Los Angeles CPR class with Lifesaver Education or sign up for an online BLS course.
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