According to a New Study...

Obese teenagers could be startlingly more prone to cardiovascular diseases upon reaching adulthood, according to a study published last month in the
New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center were among those who completed the study using a Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model program, a computer model that used data inputted by the scientists to project obesity rates among current adolescents. The study predicted that around 37 percent of males and 44 percent of females will be obese in about 20 years, based on data from 2000. The study also projected that by 2035, there will around 100,000 additional patients with heart disease and a significant increase in obesity-related chronic heart disease deaths.

While obesity has been long known to cause hazardous health risks—including heart attacks, diabetes, chronic chest pain, and premature death—the study offered new insights.

“Although the general findings of our analysis are not surprising, we were struck by the sheer magnitude of the impact of adolescent obesity and, as a result, how important it is as a public health priority,” senior author Lee Goldman, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine at CUMC, said in a press release.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around nine million teenagers are currently classified as overweight, a threefold increase since 1970.

sandeep.soman@columbiaspectator.com