Heart disease & diabetes prevention for youth

Do you think heart disease and diabetes only occur in adults? Unfortunately, they are now occurring in children as well.

The biggest risk factor for childhood diabetes and children's heart disease is being overweight. Other childhood heart disease and child diabetes risk factors are:

• Smoking and secondhand smoke
• A non-active lifestyle
• Not eating enough fruits and vegetables
• High blood pressure and cholesterol levels
• Family or personal history of heart disease or diabetes
• Being Hispanic or African-American

What you can do now
The children's heart disease and childhood diabetes risk factors listed above and related lifestyle behaviors in children often set the pattern for their adult lives. Here's what parents can do to help children change their behaviors and reduce their heart disease and diabetes risk factors early in life, so they grow up to become healthy adults.

1. Stop smoking
If you smoke, stop. A child is never too young to suffer from secondhand smoke. According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, infants are three times more likely to die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) if their mothers smoke; secondhand smoke kills 1,900 non-smokers each year in Michigan alone, including children.

2. Help your child stop smoking
Parents are role models. If you smoke, your children will try smoking, too. Studies show that young children who experiment with smoking will remain regular smokers, because nicotine is addicting. If your child has already started smoking, here are some ideas on encouraging him or her to quit smoking from the American Cancer Society:

• Be supportive; avoid threats
• Find out why your child is smoking – does he want to be accepted at school? Do her friends smoke?
• Talk to your child about your own experience trying to quit smoking
• Encourage your child to make a list of reasons why they want to quit smoking

3. Get the family moving
Did you know that a child with one overweight parent has a 40 percent chance of being overweight? If both parents are overweight, the risk doubles. About 80 percent of all teens who are overweight will become overweight adults. In addition, inactivity in children is a risk factor for obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis later in life.¹

Here are a few ways to help your child become more active:

• Limit the amount of TV you watch and video or computer games you play (remember, you're a role model)
• Limit your child's TV watching and video or computer games
• Go for family walks. Make walking the dog a daily activity!
• Get involved in a family sport or after-school activity
• Build up to 30 minutes of brisk exercise, 5 days a week, for everyone in the family
  

4. Serve more fruits and vegetables
You need to set patterns of healthy eating for your child early. Children need 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruit every day to get the vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients their growing bodies need.

Too few veggies and too many high-fat foods lead to weight gain and a loss of energy — especially in African American, Hispanic, and Native American children. A high-fat diet in youth increases the risk for some cancers, children's heart disease and childhood diabetes. Here are some tips on healthier choices for children:

• Serve healthy snacks like carrots, celery sticks filled with peanut butter, or fruit
• Serve a dark green or yellow vegetable at every meal; eat them yourself, as an example and an investment in your own health
• Limit fat, especially from fried foods (french fries, fried chicken, doughnuts, chips) and sweets (ice cream, cake, cookies)
• Serve milk at meals; limit sodas. If you drink five 20 oz. sodas in one week, you consume about one cup of sugar, which is equal to about 800 calories that has no nutritional value
  

5. Work toward a healthy weight
Nearly a third of all American children are overweight, or at risk of becoming overweight.² Obesity in boys and girls ages 5-17 has doubled in the last 20 years; obesity in African-American girls has tripled.¹ The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that children should be below the 95th percentile for Body Mass Index (BMI) for their sex, weight and height.

Being overweight as a child can lead to serious problems in adulthood - stroke, high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes, and some cancers.¹ About 30% of kids born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime.²

Overweight children may develop metabolic syndrome, also known as insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is associated with increased risk of heart disease and death.³ The signs are high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and a large waist size.

Here are three things you can do:

• Jot down what your child eats and drinks each day. Make sure you understand how much of what kinds of food he or she is choosing.
• Ask the doctor to show you where your child is on the BMI chart
• If your child is overweight, ask the doctor to measure your child's waist-to-hip ratio. When it comes to body fat, it's not just how much you have, but where it is on your body that's important; extra fat around the abdomen is linked to heart disease and diabetes.
  

6. Watch your child's blood pressure and cholesterol levels
Inactivity, being overweight and eating fatty foods all can raise blood pressure, cholesterol levels and the risk for pre-diabetes. Pre-diabetes occurs when blood sugar levels are higher than normal. Being Hispanic or African American raises your child's risk of pre-diabetes even more.

• Ask the doctor if your overweight child should be tested for pre-diabetes.
  
  

¹National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, "Prevention of Chronic Disease," 2001.

²Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, "Healthy Youth: An Investment in Our Nation's Future," 2004.

³"Insulin Resistance and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Children of Parents with Insulin Resistance Syndrome," Diabetes Care Vol. 27, No. 3, March 2004.