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Article: Heart disease in children: think heart disease and atherosclerosis and you think about middle-aged or elderly men and women. Now look at your 12-year-old. There's a pretty good chance she's already got fatty streaks in her aorta, the body's main artery, an early sign of atherosclerosis. She may also have high cholesterol.(Ages & Stages)
- Article from:
- National Women's Health Report
- Article date:
- February 1, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 National Women's Health Resource Center. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In fact, up to one-third of American children, from age two through the teenage years, have high cholesterol. Compared with their counterparts in many other countries, American children and adolescents also have higher blood cholesterol levels and higher intakes of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol. (18) Young children, even babies, can also have high blood pressure. (19)
So in the summer of 2002, the American Heart Association began recommending that health care professionals start measuring children's blood pressure at age three and blood cholesterol at age five. (19,20) The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends cholesterol tests for children age two or ...