Maintaining a healthy weight in children may be one good way to keep a healthy blood lipid profile and a happy heart, a new study has found.
A study of 400 high school age children with a variety of fitness and fatness levels showed that fatter youths had unfavorable lipid profiles, including higher levels of triglycerides and higher ratios of total cholesterol to the protective HDL cholesterol or high density lipoprotein.
"This ratio tells about the balance of the 'bad' to the 'good' forms of lipoproteins; thus a high ratio indicates high risk for coronary artery disease later in life," says Dr. Bernard Gutin, exercise physiologist and Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and Physiology at the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Gutin is lead author on the study in the July issue of Pediatric Research.
The study, which included extensive measurement of fitness and fatness as well as fasting blood tests of lipid levels, showed the leanest teens – those with less than 25 percent body fat – had the best lipid/lipoprotein profiles.
Interestingly, fatness had almost no impact on the triglyceride and total cholesterol levels of black teens in the study, a finding researchers say they will pursue further.
"The first issue is that fatness is important," says Dr. Gutin. "Fitness is important too but when you put them together it looks like fatness is more important in teens. The second issue is that the impact of high levels of fatness on triglycerides and total cholesterol seems to be less strong for blacks than it is for whites."
"The take home message is that another good reason to watch your child's weight is his lipid profile," says Dr. Paule Barbeau, MCG exercise physiologist and a study co-author. She and Dr. Gutin note that studies at MCG's Georgia Prevention Institute and elsewhere have shown that the best way to help growing children get and maintain a healthy body composition is physical activity, especially activity of a vigorous nature. Dr. Gutin was a member of a recent national panel of experts, convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that said school-age children need an hour or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily. Dr. William B. Strong, Section Chief of Pediatric Cardiology Emeritus at MCG, co-chaired the panel.
The foundation for being an adult with cardiovascular disease begins in childhood with genetics, weight, stress and activity level each playing a role, the researchers say. "We think the atherosclerotic process, the building up of fat and other material in the artery wall that ultimately ends up causing a heart attack when the person is in his 40s, 50s or 60s, starts in childhood," says Dr. Gutin.
"This new study reinforces the idea that intervention programs in children should focus on decreasing fatness," says Dr. Barbeau. That focus should begin before a child is born, with a pregnant woman eating right and staying active to help ensure the baby is born at a healthy weight, she says.
MCG researchers say there is evidence that fatter adults tend to have bad lipid profiles and that fitness and fatness influence those profiles.
They wanted to know whether this also is true in children.