Amazing what exercise can do to help our kids live a healthier life.
I was absolutely staggered to read the results of a recent study done by the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress where they stated that high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity are affecting young teenagers in Canada at alarmingly high rates.
What they said was that 20% or one in five young Canadian teens studied have high blood pressure and most had at least one major risk factor for heart disease or stroke.
This was not some little rinky-dink study done on a couple dozen kids over a two week period either, the study was done on 20,719 grade nine students aged 14 and 15 over a seven year period from 2002 to 2008.
One of the most disturbing facts is that the trends are showing that things are getting worse instead of better. So with more public awareness on the problem of obesity even in young teens it has not transcended into any behavioural changes. The percentage of grade 9 students with one or ore cardio risk factors rose four points from 17 per cent to 21 per cent over the seven year period.
The percentage of students with elevated cholesterol rose seven points from 9 per cent to 16 per cent.
As the risk factors for heart disease and stroke have increased so have the hours of sedentary behaviour among teens. The percentage of 14 and 15 year olds who spent 20 hours per week watching TV or playing video games rose from 22 per cent to 24 per cent between 2002 and 2008. Also, the percentage of grade 9 students who are physically active for at least 90 minutes at least 5 times per week fell from 28 to 22 per cent.
Teens with high blood pressure or cholesterol or who are obese are likely to carry these same risk factors on into adulthood.
Without changes in these patterns of risk factors into adulthood puts these same teens in danger of becoming part of a generation that has a shorter life span than their parents because of developing early aged heart attacks and strokes.
Most of these risk factors are completely reversible if the person decides to adopt a healthier lifestyle that includes a more nutritious diet, exercising with weightlifting and doing some or various forms of cardio vascular exercise on a regular basis.
Isn’t it amazing what exercise can do to help us all live a healthier and higher quality of life?
