ENTRE News – Many parents still consider it normal for children to be overweight. In fact, obesity that occurs as children is at higher risk of suffering from heart disease at a young age.
Johan Winata, a specialist in heart and vascular subspecialist cardiology and interventional cardiology at Pondok Indah Hospital, Puri Indah, said that obese children should not be allowed to suffer. Because there are various diseases that lurk them, one of which is heart disease at a young age.
“It’s high, the risk of these children suffering from heart disease at a young age is very high,” said Johan.
Obesity, said Johan, is the same as accumulating fat in the body which can become plaque in the blood vessels. The more plaque forms, the more the blood vessels will close, especially the channels leading to the heart. When this is not treated, when the child enters his 20s, he will suffer a heart attack or even heart disease. The reason is, blood flow to the heart is not pumped perfectly. Fat also accumulates, which makes the heart work less optimally.
“Indeed, there is research that if you are obese as a child, when you are old, you can have a heart attack when you are an adult,” he said.
Apart from that, the risk of heart disease will be greater if it is combined with various other factors. Johan said these factors are heredity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol and living an unhealthy lifestyle.
“For example, he smokes, continues to eat foods high in salt and excessive fat, and he lives a sedentary life. Having heart (disease) in his 20s is definitely there,” he said.
According to Johan FOR4D, heart disease at a young age is no longer just a figment of imagination. He himself admitted that he had several heart disease patients in their 20s.
“I have several (patients) who are still young. And their heart disease is not congenital, but due to lifestyle. So don’t underestimate them because they are still young and think they are safe from heart (disease),” he said.