Elderly Teens
A study of the health of moderately fit and unfit 15 – 17 year old teens came to the conclusion that some teenagers now have the same risk for heart disease, stroke and vascular dementia as people that are 55 – 60 years old. The study was conducted by administering running tests, ultrasound imaging and blood sampling.
Some of the troubling results
- At age 15, some children had already increased their risk for a stroke.
- 85% of unfit teenagers had high blood pressure
- 90% had high levels of fat in their blood
- 62% had a high risk of developing diabetes
- 87% had the vascular age of a person over 55 years old
Fit teenagers had none of the risk factors for heart disease, while the arteries that supply blood to the brain of low fitness teenagers had aged to the equivalent of a 55-60 year old. Dr. Niall Moyna said of the results, “These kids, not only do they have risk factors, they have the disease, so they’re going to get clinical manifestations if they don’t change their lifestyle, probably in their 30s and 40s.”
Read more about the startling findings and the detail of how the study was carried out here.
