by pixabay
Heart disease and high blood pressure are beginning to appear in children at early age.
More studies had proven that children with higher blood pressure levels are most likely to contract hypertension in their adulthood years.
Over the decades, the number of young adults with high blood pressure are increasing dramatically due to:
sedentary lifestyle
ignorance about overweight issues
obesity- consuming too much high cholesterol and calories food
The alarming issue is that, almost 1/3 of overweight children as young as 5 years old have high blood pressure.
Normally, the blood pressure reading for a child is lower than adults.
However, the pressure reading will increase gradually over the years if steps are not taken to control the blood pressure reading.
It is extremely vital for families with the medical history of heart diseases, heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure and cholesterol level to have a yearly medical checkup as early as possible.
My grandmother (father side) had heart disease and high blood pressure when she was at adulthood.
No doubt, my father and his siblings had contracted the same illness as their mom had at middle age.
My grandmother’s family as addicted to salty and high cholesterol food which must be one of the reasons why she and her kids had high blood pressure and heart diseases in their bloodline.
True that both these diseases are hereditary but one could avoid them with the healthy eating behavior and regular exercise to prevent the symptoms from appearing at all.
If my grandmother had paid more attention to encouraging a healthy lifestyle in the entire family, a sodium free diet and lots of outdoor activities, her children would have a FREE from heart disease and high blood pressure problems, right?
One might give excuses that old folks who were uneducated do not have the knowledge about “What healthy lifestyle” is.
However, our parents and we as modern technology parents should educate ourselves with lots of reading and equip ourselves with these high risk diseases preventions.
Good habits should be implemented early in life as children can easily absorb these good habits if practiced daily at home.
A child’s lifestyle solely depends on his parents, whatever that his parents do at home , eat, drinks, daily routine, he imitates their behavior exactly the same like a photostat machine.
Here are some tips on how to prevent High Blood Pressure for your children and young adults
What parent would not want to give his child a bright future, free from high blood pressure and heart diseases?
Change your unhealthy eating habits and lifestyle now for the sake of your children and young adults.
Copyright allrights reserved by peachpurple
Photos by pixabay
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View Comments
Hard to imagine children having high blood pressure.
I think if parents let the kids run about and play more often, the problem will be resolved.
Most kids like to run when they are happy or sad or not having anything to do.
That is good for them, but parents always tell the kids to stop running.
My nephew age 19 already has hypertension.Why? He likes to eat processed foods, all meat , canned goods and sweets. He is not fat, but high blood and high creatine. My elder sister too are having high blood issues and arthritis, too bad to know about their sickness. They like to eat what they want to eat.
These are all excellent pieces of advice for prevention of high blood pressure and a number of other health concerns too. I would discourage relying on fruit juices, though, especially commercially produced ones.
It is much better to feed a child a piece of fruit and give him a glass of water, than to give him fruit juice. Since the advent of juice boxes, it has become normal for school children in north America to bring them to school daily, and in some cases the school will ask for two or even three juice boxes per day. That is far more fruit juice than recommended, and in fact nurses, doctors and dietitians will all tell you the juice should be treated more like a treat for once in a while, than an everyday staple.
When I was a child and there were no juice boxes, we kids just drank water at the fountain if we got thirsty during school. Since juice boxes, kids often don't even have the time to go to the fountain. Some schools may not even keep the fountains properly maintained. And now the children are becoming obese at such a young age.It's truly a concern!
I never buy juice for the kids to drink. I hated when I was on assistance and I would get vouchers for their food staples such as milk, bread, cereal, etc. I had to buy the juice which I thought was unnecessary. If they eat the fruit then they do not need the juice. If I did buy juice it would be 100% real fruit juice and only allow them to have one serving of it a day. I do not even let them have pop since it is not good for them. Only on a special occasion can they have it as long as it is caffeine free.
At restaurants they order water and at school they drink water. At home it is water or milk for them to drink. I have never been a big juice drinker either and much prefer water to any other drink. I know people that give their children pop all the time regardless of whether there is caffeine in it or not. They also give them unlimited juice. While the juice boxes are convenient they are not cheap and it can cost a lot of money that I don't have for the school year.
The points you noted are very helpful. I have a relative suffering from high blood pressure. The most effective way to maintain the blood pressure levels to a normal one is to cut out your salt intake. We know that high salt intake can have a negative effect. Also a good amount of exercise is needed alongwith a good diet to control your blood pressure to the normal level.
@scheng1/
yes isn't it alarming that kids too contract high blood pressure at such tender age.
If parents allowed them to run about instead of staying infront of computer or eyeing on Ipad the whole day, then maybe our kids health would had improved.
If parents tell them to stop running . fear that they might fall and hurt the knees, wear long pants instead!
@lovern/
sorry to hear about your nephew and sister health problem.
It is true that the food we ate had caused hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc, those high risk disease.
Hence, it is up to us to control our eating habits.
Fast food chain are mushrooming, every corner that you go, you can see fast food restaurants.
It is fast to deliver food, but it is also fast to develop disease
:)
@ruby3881/
it is true, nowadays, there are too many choices for us to choose from, yet we do not check out the nutritional value before buying them.
Right, cut fruits would be better for kids.
My boy loves bananas, apples and oranges.
He doesn't drink fruit juice that often.
When I was young, we had water fountain in school but the saliva and spits on the bowl is sickening.
Girls aren't clean either!
@manasi/
sorry to hear that.
It is true that reduce sodium intake would be better and exercise too.
My dad has high blood pressure.
He is reducing the salt intake, drinking more tea and keep calm.
He can't exercise.
When he took a brisk walk from home to a grocery shop which is 10 minutes away, he came back panting, sweating, tired, fatigue.
He can't take exercise.
So, he rested more.
He is in his 70++
For me the major factor that has caused hypertension among kids, youths, and adults too is their lifestyle. As the world become modern, technologically advance, everyone's lifestyle is greatly affected. They tend to become immobile. They maintain a sedentary kind of living with less exercises, work, or exertion of muscles and efforts. Add to this lifestyle is the uncontrollable intake of carbo, salty foods, among others.
Very informative and helpful post! My mother suffers from high blood pressure and her sedentary lifestyle is making it even worse.