Cholesterol should be kept under control

Obesity in children

Children nowadays suffer from obesity due to the fact that they spend a lot of time eating in front of the TV and not doing sports. They tend to eat junk food, which is bad for their health and their parents seem not to notice that their children are getting fatter by the minute. High cholesterol is very common among children now and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends screening those children who have a family history of diabetes, heart problems or who smoke.
A recent study that took place in West Virginia shows that 71% of the children met guidelines for cholesterol screening based on their family history. Among children whose family history wasn’t known, 9.5% had high cholesterol and 1.7% of those children requiring medication to treat the condition. These screenings will help preventing eventual problems and disease and the researchers said that “…the added and undeniable benefit of identifying and screening parents and other first-degree relatives as a result to finding elevated LDL levels in their children could lead to the prevention of premature cardiac events in adults that may have otherwise gone undiagnosed.”

However, parents should be more careful in what food they are giving to their children and should not allow them to eat all the fast food and sweets they are. Kids should be taught to eat more healthy food and to reduce the amount of sugar and junk food, because these are the main reasons for which cholesterol increases.

There are two types of cholesterol. There’s “good” cholesterol (HDL) and “bad” cholesterol (LDL). An elevated level of LDL in the blood can cause heart disease, as it deposits cholesterol on the artery walls, causing a cholesterol plaque which, eventually will provoke atherosclerosis. This LDL cholesterol is determined by an unhealthy diet and by heredity. However, it can be kept low by eating healthy food and doing sports.

Basically, all parents should take better care of their children’s diet and these screenings should be done in schools to kids before the age of 10 to prevent possible problems and diseases.11