Reasons Children Are Having High Blood Pressure –Cardiologists

The Paediatric cardiologists have lamented that more children, especially from rich families, are coming down with high blood pressure. Information Guide Nigeria

The cardiologists said that unhealthy lifestyle practices by the rich could be a major factor in the development. VOICE OF NIGERIA reports.

They also added that the quest to feed children with fast, processed food and not allowing them to play outside is wrong, noting that the food consumed by the children subsequently gets converted into fat.

The paediatric cardiologists noted that hypertension in children is not easily picked up like that of adults but urged parents to be alert to detect it early in children.

They advised that children’s blood pressure should be monitored from the age of three, adding that parents must begin to pay attention to any change in their children’s blood pressure measurement.

According to Mayo Clinic, high blood pressure in children is blood pressure that is at or above the 95th percentile. jamb results

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Mayo Clinic further explained that though there are usually no symptoms of hypertension in children, parents must be alert to signs of headaches, seizures, vomiting, chest pain, and shortness of breath in children, noting that they could be indications of elevated blood pressure.

Sadoh, a Fellow of the American College of Cardiologists, said: “The major reason why there seems to be a rise in elevated blood pressure is because of the rise in obesity. If you go to schools, especially private schools, a lot of children are obese and that is the reason for this so-called rise in hypertension in children.”

He attributed the rise in blood pressure to what the children eat and the absence of physical exercise. He said, “It’s what they eat. They eat a lot of fast foods, a lot of soda, meat pies and so on. Instead of taking proper food, they are taking fast foods, soda. These things contribute to making them gain weight

“The other factor is that they don’t exercise as much as they should. Oftentimes their television hours are very high, they are playing video games, rather than playing outside.

“They play video games, watch TV and when they are done, they go to sleep.”

“Sometimes when they are watching TV or playing video games, they are taking popcorn, which is a carbohydrate and thus increasing their calories”.

“We know that when it comes to weight gain or the body size, there has to be a balance between what you take in and the energy that you expend. So if you are eating a lot, especially high energy fast food and you don’t have the opportunity to burn the energy, it gets stored in the body and becomes fat”.

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