National News

ISLAMABAD, (APP): One in three children with a strong family
history of heart disease or Type 2 diabetes may have significantly higher
levels of risk for cholesterol than kids with no family history of those
conditions.
The findings showed that such children had a higher ratio of total
cholesterol and were also at risk of cardiometabolic markers chances for
having diabetes, heart disease or stroke,Health news reported.
“One-third of the children in our study had a strong family history of
diabetes. These children had higher levels of total cholesterol and a higher
ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol than children with no family
history,” said lead researcher Nina Berentzen.
The team included 1,374 children who had both a clinical assessment at
age 12 and parental reports on their family history of CVD and diabetes.
Children with elevated levels of these markers were also at risk of
increased body mass index (BMI) levels, waist circumference and cholesterol,
blood pressure and blood sugar control. Most of the associations between
family disease history and cardiometabolic markers persisted, even after
adjusting for the BMI of the parents and child.
The study is the first to investigate the occurrence of both diseases
across two generations of parents and grandparents and relate it to measurable risk factors in children. However, “even children with a healthy weight could be at risk for unfavourable levels of cardiometabolic markers if their parents or grandparents had diabetes,” researchers added.