Diet, Exercise Can Put Kids on a Path to a Healthy Heart

At the age of 10, Kori DeBolt had a cholesterol level that would scare a grown man. She also had a mom who was diagnosed with high cholesterol in her 30s, and a grandfather who had a heart attack at the age of 38.

In other words, heart disease was in her family tree. And if she didn’t do something now, she was probably heading toward an early heart attack herself.

So, she and her parents and sister changed how they ate, boosted their exercise levels even higher than they were – and within five years, succeeded in bringing Kori’s cholesterol down by 82 points. And while she’s not out of the woods, and will always have to watch her levels, her chances of a healthy future are much better.

Kori’s situation is not unique. Millions of American kids face early heart disease if their families don’t do something now, says Kori’s heart doctor, Caren Goldberg, M.D., of the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center.

“The cardiovascular diseases that we think of in adults, like heart attack and stroke, stem from processes that actually start in childhood,” says Goldberg, who sees hundreds of children like Kori in her clinic at the Michigan Congenital Heart Center in C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. “Several factors put children, and adults, at risk of heart disease: family history, a diet that’s high in fat, obesity, and poor exercise habits.”

All of those factors combine to affect the way children’s blood vessels work, Goldberg explains. After about the age of 2, too much fat, too little exercise, and too many extra pounds can cause kids’ blood vessels to respond abnormally, leading to higher blood pressure and deposits of plaque, and setting the stage for later problems.

Family history is based on the genes that everyone inherits from their parents and grandparents, just like Kori inherited a gene that produces high cholesterol levels. But just because there’s heart disease in a child’s family, especially heart disease that strikes at a young age, it doesn’t mean that the child is doomed to have a heart attack too. The same is true for overweight kids.

In fact, knowing that a child has a higher-than-normal risk should spur families to do everything that is in their control to reduce that risk, Goldberg says. That means choosing healthier foods, and making sure to get regular physical activity. Parents need to set the example that kids will follow, to get them in the habit of making healthy decisions about what to put in their mouths and how to spend their free time.

And even for families that don’t have a lot of heart attacks in the family tree, it’s important for parents to be the role models for eating and exercising – so that kids don’t develop unhealthy habits that can set them up for heart disease later.

“If a child sees his or her parents eating a healthy diet, and having excellent exercise habits, then it will come absolutely naturally to that child, and be easier for them,” Goldberg says.