Many Kids May Have High Cholesterol, Regardless of Weight

Abnormal levels seen in 1 of 3 children, possibly raising future heart disease risk, researcher says
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, March 28, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- About one of three Texas kids screened for cholesterol between the ages of 9 and 11 had borderline or high cholesterol, potentially placing them at greater risk for future cardiovascular disease, a new study has found.
Obese kids were more likely to have abnormal cholesterol levels, but a large percentage of normal-weight children also had borderline or high cholesterol, said lead investigator Dr. Thomas Seery, a pediatric cardiologist at Texas Children's Hospital and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston.
"The reality is that 35 percent of kids who were not obese had abnormal cholesterol as well," Seery said.
Physicians and parents need to teach kids healthy habits, such as eating right and exercising regularly, or as adults they will be more likely to suffer heart disease and stroke, he said.
"Cardiovascular disease in children is rare, but we know that atherosclerosis has its beginnings in childhood," Seery said. "The better a job we do now, the better they will do later in life."
Previous studies have indicated that as many as 70 percent of children who have elevated cholesterol levels maintained those high levels as they entered young adulthood, said Dr. Patricia Vuguin, a pediatric endocrinologist at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.
"Your cholesterol at 9 is a reflection of where your cholesterol is going to be in your 40s and 50s," Vuguin said.
The new findings, scheduled to be presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held in Washington, D.C., take an even darker tone when held next to another study also featured at the meeting.
That study found that middle-school kids who spend two hours or more at a television or computer screen each day are more likely to chow down junk food and have increased risk of cardiovascular disease, researchers said.
The study of about 1,000 sixth-graders in southeast Michigan found that avid TV viewers and computer/video game users both reported eating about 3.5 snacks a day -- one full snack more than children who had low exposure to these technologies.
"Parents need to monitor their kids' activities," said senior author Dr. Elizabeth Jackson, an associate professor in the division of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Michigan. "Our results offer even more reason to limit the amount of TV time kids have and are right in line with current recommendations," she said in a meeting news release.
Seery and his colleagues undertook their research after new guidelines for juvenile cholesterol screening were issued by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 2011 and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Good Cholesterol? Bad Cholesterol?

High Triglycerides; Low Triglycerides;

How can we know what’s best?

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Genes May Influence Weight Gain From Fried Foods: Study

This 'biology driver' is minor in some people, powerful in others, expert says
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, March 19, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Genetics help determine whether a frequent diet of fried food will make you fat, according to a new Harvard study.

Eating fried food more than four times a week had twice as big an effect on body size for people at high genetic risk of obesity compared with people at low risk, researchers found after analyzing data from three U.S. trials.

Moreover, the more pro-obesity genes you carry, the bigger you'll get chowing down on fried chicken and such, the researcher said.

Such findings help explain why Americans' overall bad health habits don't affect everyone equally, said Claude Bouchard, chairman of genetics and nutrition at the Human Genomics Laboratory of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge, La.

"Our dietary habits and our lack of physical activity is driving the obesity epidemic, but the force of the behavioral driver is not the same in everyone," Bouchard said.

"We also have a biology driver, and that driver for some people is very minor," he said. "For others, it's a powerful agent enhancing the risk of behavior."

Other studies have noted similar interactions between these genetic risks and other environmental risk factors for obesity, including physical activity and total calorie intake, Bouchard said. People who are more sedentary or eat more are more likely to gain weight if they carry these genetic risks.

In the future, genetic testing could help reveal who is at higher risk of obesity, so they can take preventive measures, Bouchard said.

"It's not a sentence for obesity, but rather an increased susceptibility to obesity," he said. "Your peers can afford to have an extra serving or be sedentary and they will be OK, but for you it won't happen. That's important to know."

The findings, published March 19 in the journal BMJ, are based on an analysis of more than 37,000 men and women who participated in three U.S. health trials.

For each person, the researchers looked at a panel of 32 known genetic variants associated with obesity. They tracked fried food consumption using questionnaires and looked at each person's body-mass index (BMI), a measurement of body fat based on height and weight.

People with genetic risk scores in the top third tended to have a BMI that was 1 unit higher in women and 0.7 units higher in men if they ate fried food four or more times a week, compared with people at the same risk who ate such food less than once a week.

But for participants with the lowest genetic risk, little differences was seen between those who ate the most fried food versus very little -- just half a unit in women and 0.4 units in men.

"Are You Suffering From Weak Bones And Digestive Disorders? Did You Ever Wonder About Why You Feel Restless, Listless Or Anxious Without Any Plausible Reason? The Answer Probably Lies In Your Dietary Habits!"

'Grazing' Appears No Better for Weight Loss Than Standard Meals

Daily calories, not how often you eat, are what matter, study finds
By Kathleen Doheny

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, March 27, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- For weight loss, some swear by "grazing" -- eating several small meals throughout the day -- instead of eating fewer meals at more traditional mealtimes.

Now, a small study comparing both approaches finds it doesn't matter which tactic you use, as long as you reduce total calories.

Women who ate five meals on one test day and two regular meals on another (consuming the same total calories each day) burned the same amount of calories both days, researchers found.

Despite folklore that grazing somehow revs up your metabolism, it doesn't appear to be the case, said study researcher Dr. Milan Kumar Piya.

"If you eat two meals or five, as long as it's the same number of calories; there is no difference in energy expenditures, so there is no effect on weight loss," said Piya, a clinical lecturer with the U.K. National Institute for Health Research, at University Hospital Coventry and University of Warwick.

He presented the findings Tuesday at a Society for Endocrinology meeting in Liverpool, England.

Those hoping to lose weight can choose the approach they prefer, Piya said. Based on the new findings, he said he would now tell patients trying to lose weight: "You have your own ways of eating and doing things. As long as you eat fewer calories [to lose weight], you will be fine."

He compared the approaches in 24 women, including some who were normal weight and some who were obese. The lean women, on average, were age 34, while the obese women, on average, were 42.

The women were given either two meals or five meals on two separate days, and the researchers measured calories burned, comparing each woman's own individual daily results. Both obese and lean women burned virtually the identical number of calories over a 24-hour period, regardless of which day was analyzed.

Piya also took blood samples twice during each 24-hour period to evaluate signs of inflammation, known as "endotoxins," among other measures. "Obese people have more inflammation to begin with," he noted.

Inflammation, in turn, has been linked in previous studies with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"At bedtime, when we compared the obese women with the lean women, the obese women had higher endotoxins after the five-meal day," Piya said. That would, he said, theoretically, boost their risk of diabetes and heart disease. "The lean women did not have higher endotoxins when they had five meals compared to two."

The new findings make sense to Michelle Kulovitz Alencar, an assistant professor of kinesiology at California State University, San Bernardino. "In my own research, I have found that it's all about calorie intake," she said, not how the calories are spread out during the day, for weight loss results.

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