The Key To Improving Your Child's Cardiovascular Health

KYW's Medical Reports Sponsored By Independence Blue Cross

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- We talk a great deal about providing our children with the best diets and proper amount of exercise for good health, but according to a report in the Journal Circulation we are not doing that great of a job.

According to the American Heart Association report a large proportion of U.S. children fail to meet the standards set for ideal cardiovascular health, with most having a poor diet as well as low physical activity. A large majority of children scored poorly on dietary measures and only a third to half of children received the recommended amount of daily physical activity.

There are certain criteria that the physicians in the group state that are necessary for children and adolescents. These include: never tried or smoked a whole cigarette, at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day, total cholesterol less than 170 and blood pressure under the 90th percentile. All of these things are important not just in the short run but in the long run.

Trying to follow these ideal health behaviors early in life can have a tremendous benefit on maintaining ideal health throughout the lifespan.

The researchers made the point that instead of taking a wait-and-see approach by treating disease later in adulthood, we should help children maintain the standards of ideal cardiovascular health that most children are born with.