Obese children damage arteries for life

BEING obese in childhood raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes much later in life, a major study has found.

Children who were obese at the age of ten were shown to have damaged arteries 25 years later – even if they lost weight in the intervening years.

Obese youngsters were more likely to develop pre-diabetes, thickened arteries and high blood pressure as adults – all problems which raise the risk of heart disease, strokes and other cardiovascular problems.

Shockingly, nearly 20 per cent of ten and 11-year-olds in the UK were obese in 2015/16.

The study at the University of Surrey, published in the journal Obesity Reviews, suggests this will create a boom in severe heart problems in years to come. Lead author Dr Martin Whyte said: ‘What we found is that childhood obesity can cause lasting arterial damage which could lead to life threatening illness.’

The team looked at 18 previous studies, including 300,000 people aged between ten and 35, with obese children more likely to have thicker arteries later on.