Health Tip – Audio Version – “Heading toward heart trouble”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – Take Charge of Your Health! (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

Teenage boys might have signs of the heart trouble they could have as men. Researcher Antoinette Moran of the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital found indications of that.

Moran looked at blood pressure, forms of cholesterol and problems with insulin in boys and girls from ages 11 to 19. She found male teens were more likely than females to have things worse.

“By the end of puberty, there was a pattern that these young men were moving in a direction that was of greater risk than the women.’’

Moran also says, though, that obesity could make things far worse in boys and girls. So she recommends weight control and exercise – which also works against blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin problems.

The study in the journal Circulation was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: September, 26 2008