( Just about every adult these days knows...)Cure for Most Heart Attacks Is Free, but It's Important to Start Young,Health

Just about every adult these days knows that a diet laden with fats and sugar, combined with little or no regular exercise and risky behaviors like smoking is a recipe for// major problems including diabetes and heart attacks. But a renowned heart disease researcher says adults need to realize that those same bad habits in children set them up for their own problems years down the road.

The good news: The fix is free. That’s because it costs nothing to change kids’ diet and exercise routines from harmful to helpful.

‘We could probably eliminate 90 percent of heart attacks if we’d make sure our kids were eating right and getting enough exercise from the start, rather than waiting to treat them for diseases that show up decades later as a direct result of years of bad eating habits and a lack of exercise,’ says Dr. Henry C. McGill Jr., senior scientist emeritus at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio. ‘What we’ve found through literally decades of study is that the beginning of atherosclerosis (often called hardening of the arteries) can be detected in children as young as 12 years old. They may be in their 40s or 50s or 60s when they experience a heart attack, but the build-up of deposits in the artery walls began many years earlier, when they were kids.’

McGill believes a ‘cultural revolution’ will be necessary for attitudes to change about children’s lifestyles. But he’s already seeing hopeful signs, including more schools prohibiting sugar-laced soft drinks on campus and re-instating physical education classes.

‘Fifty years ago, two thirds of the U.S. population smoked, and today that number is closer to one fifth,’ he added. ‘That’s still too many smokers but it shows that society’s attitudes and individuals’ behaviors can change over time.’

Groundbreaking study

Under the Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth (PDAY) study, McGill and rese
'"/>




Page: 1 2 3
Related medicine news :

1. One in Three Heart Attack Patients Have No Chest Pains
2. Epileptic Seizures Can Be Due to Heart Problem
3. Bypass Heart Surgery Performed Without General Anesthesia
4. New CPR Guidelines issued by Heart Association
5. White Cells Count Can Predict Heart Attack Death Risk
6. Vitamins-The answer to Heart Disease?
7. Fight Heart disease and Pain with Meditation
8. Heart disease in the newborn is related to maternal malnutrition
9. New drug to treat Heart Attack and damaged tissue
10. Heart disease threat starts early in life for Diabetics
11. Mechanical Heart