Researchers have discovered five childhood key factors that could lead to strokes later in life. It is normal that parents pay close attention to the health and well-being of their children. It is one of the most basic jobs of a parent, however, it can also have a large impact on their future health. Parents are often so consumed and busy with the present that they don’t have a lot of time to think about the future. However, it is important that they do because more and more studies are showing that the health of a child could impact their health as an adult.
According to CTV News, new research is pointing to some pretty big childhood risk factors that could increase the risk of that child having a stroke when they are an adult. This study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and it can be read in full here.
To come to their conclusion, the researchers tracked more than 38,000 participants for half a century to be able to narrow down the risk factors. This is the world’s largest study on this topic.
The risk factors that they found are all linked with a higher risk of strokes and heart attacks.
- Blood pressure
- Cholesterol
- Body mass index
- Presence of triglycerides
- Smoking in childhood
Children who have one or more of these struggles can be at higher risk and may need to be monitored.
Terence Dwyer, the senior study author, said that many researchers shy away from doing studies like this, simply because they take too long to do. You have to follow children until they’re in their adulthood, and not many take on the task, however, they wanted to because they know how important it can be to human health.
To complete the study, they looked at all the participants who had grown up to have a cardiovascular event. They found that 319 had fatal events, and 779 had non-fatal events. They then looked at their childhoods to see if there were any red flags that they all shared in common. This is what led researchers to compile this list.
It is obvious that the more risk factors the child has, the higher their risk will be. This is why it is important for medical professionals and parents to monitor youths who are showing these risk factors to try and intervene.