Stiff arteries in teenagers could indicate future high blood pressure
High blood pressure and obesity are two major health problems that are on the rise around the world.
Despite campaigns to promote healthy eating, more exercise and less sedentary time, these problems are not going away. The American Heart Association has even called for more research to address this health crisis.
What we usually miss: Arterial stiffness
In older people there is a condition called stiff arteries that can indicate serious heart problems or even a risk of death.
Arterial stiffness means your arteries, the blood tubes that carry blood from your heart to the rest of your body, lose their flexibility. To put it simply, stiff arteries cannot do their job as well as flexible ones.
As this is a problem we usually associate with older people, we have not paid as much attention to the impact on younger people such as children, teenagers and young adults.
One reason is that there is not much long-term data on these age groups.
New study sheds light on the darkness
A recent study took a close look at teenagers and middle-aged people and found something pretty amazing.
Arterial stiffness could be a sign of future health problems like high blood pressure, obesity, insulin resistance (which can lead to diabetes), and unhealthy cholesterol levels.
That’s a long list of serious problems that no one wants to deal with.
What can stiffen a teenager’s arteries? The study suggests it could have multiple causes: whether their mother smoked during pregnancy, whether they smoked themselves, whether they ate too much salt, their family history, obesity, and even high blood pressure that starts at a young age.
Andrew Agbaje, a doctor at the University of Eastern Finland, says stiff arteries in teenagers can be like a hidden time bomb.
These young people could be at higher risk for future health problems like high blood pressure and diabetes.
That means doctors, child health professionals, and even government politicians need to think about ways to treat, and maybe even reverse, stiff arteries in teenagers.
What can we do against it?
Agbaje stresses that this issue requires more attention from health experts and policy makers.
Addressing the problem in teenagers could significantly reduce the number of adults suffering from high blood pressure and metabolic diseases like diabetes in the future. But we need more research to be sure.
So if you’re worried about high blood pressure and other health issues, keep an eye out for new studies that look deeper into it.
Especially if you have teenagers in your life, knowing more about arterial stiffness could be important for their long-term health.
This study could be groundbreaking because it shows us that we should start with heart health much earlier than usual.
Beginning these teenage health checks could make a big difference in how many people later develop serious health problems.
And that could mean far fewer adults have to deal with the complications that come with high blood pressure and obesity.
If you care about hypertension, please read Studies on a Common and Unrecognized Cause of Hypertension. This little habit can greatly help people with high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
For more information on high blood pressure, see recent studies on more efficient ways to treat high blood pressure 12 foods that lower blood pressure.
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