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Teen obesity, diabetes or high vital sign may cause prematurely aged arteries

Teenagers who have obesity, type 2 diabetes or high vital sign could also be more likely to possess signs of premature vessel aging compared to teens without those health conditions, consistent with new research published today within the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association.

Over five years, researchers evaluated 141 teens with normal weight; 156 who had obesity; and 151 who had type 2 diabetes, with a mean age of 17.6 when the study began. At the top of 5 years, the teenagers with either obesity, type 2 diabetes or high systolic vital sign —major risk factors for heart attacks and strokes later in life—were significantly more likely to possess thicker and stiffer carotid arteries, the most vessel that results in the brain.

"Our study demonstrates that the slow changes in blood vessels that cause the event of atherosclerosis begins early in life," said lead study author Justin R. Ryder, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and associate director of research for the middle for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota school of medicine in Minneapolis. Atherosclerosis is that the slow narrowing of the arteries usually related to natural aging, and it increases the danger of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events.

"Having obesity, type 2 diabetes or high systolic sign were each independently associated with and equally predictive of getting thicker and stiffer arteries among this group of youngsters . What surprised our team the foremost was that participants with higher systolic vital sign compared to their peers within the study had a really similar risk as those with obesity or type 2 diabetes for thicker and stiffer blood vessels over time," said Ryder.

Carotid artery health was assessed by non-invasive ultrasound and pulse wave velocity. The ultrasound measured the thickness of the inner two layers of the vessel , referred to as carotid intima-media thickness. the heart beat wave velocity gauges how briskly blood flows through the vessels to work out arterial stiffness. Both measures were taken at the start of the study and five years later. The analysis concluded teens with obesity, type 2 diabetes or high systolic vital sign had greater change within the thickness and stiffness of their arteries, compared to participants within the group with normal weight. this is able to suggest a greater risk of early heart attacks or strokes among the teenagers with obesity, type 2 diabetes or high systolic blood pressure.

"Although type 2 diabetes is treated aggressively within the U.S., obesity must be treated whilst vigorously because it's the same increased risk for premature aging of the blood vessels, which is an early sign of cardiovascular dysfunction and a precursor to cardiovascular diseases in adulthood," consistent with Ryder.

Strengths of the study included its large study size of just about 150 teens in each group, for a complete of 448 participants, and objective measurements of arteria carotis health five years apart. A limitation of the research is that the teenagers won't be followed into adulthood to trace if the premature aging of their blood vessels leads to heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular conditions.