Scientists discover heart attack risk begins in childhood – they determine the exact age cardiac health nosedives

Heart health begins to decline at the age of 10 for children living unhealthy lives, putting them at risk of deadly heart attacks and stroke in adulthood, researchers have warned. 

Cardiovascular disease, which affects around 7.6million Brits, is mostly caused by lifestyle factors — such as obesity, poor diets, smoking and lack of exercise. 

Researchers from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute have now pinpointed the crucial age window for protecting yourself against these factors, improving heart health into adulthood. 

In the study, published in JAMA Cardiology, researchers studied health data from over 1,500 children aged between 3 and 16 from Massachusetts.

The team assesed each child’s diet, physical activity, sleep duration, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and exposure to smoking, such as secondhand smoking which can also increase the risk of heart disease. 

The scientists also studied the blood sugar and cholesterol levels of children in mid-childhood between 6 to 10 years and early adolescence between 11 and 16 years.

Using this data they calculated a heart health score, said to indicate the child’s risk of a heart attack in later life. 

They found that cardiovascular health scores begin to decline at around 10-years-old across all demographic groups who have poor diets and do little exercise. 

Researchers theorised that 10 may be the crucial age because it’s at this point that children in the study tended to eat less healthily, and get poorer quality sleep. 

This may be due to the beginning of a transition to secondary school, as children increase their independence.

Getting ample exercise and eating a healthy diet to prevent obesity, especially between mid-childhood and early adolescence, could help boost cardiovascular health.

‘Our study provides insight into the trajectory of cardiovascular health in early life, establishing a clear window of opportunity to improve the health of the nation’s children now and into the future,’ said lead author Izzuddin Aris, Harvard Medical School assistant professor of population medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.

Cardiovascular disease is usually associated with a build-up of fatty deposits inside the arteries, increasing the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.

Being very overweight, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol are all risk factors for the disease.

The World Health Organization revealed in 2023 that 37million children under the age of five are now overweight globally — four million more than at the turn of the century. 

One in eight children aged between two and 10 in England are obese, according to NHS figures. 

It comes after experts at the University of Cambridge found high or fluctuating cholesterol in childhood heightened the risk of a condition linked to heart disease called atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a narrowing of the arteries due to a build-up of fatty deposits over time, which cause blockages in blood supply, triggering potentially fatal heart attacks and strokes.

In the study, the Cambridge team fed two groups of mice a fat-rich diet, which is known to increase ‘bad’ cholesterol, either intermittently or continuously. 

The researchers, who published their findings in Nature, then analysed data from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study — a long-term study tracking heart risks from childhood to adulthood.

More than 2,000 people recruited during the 1980s, between the ages of 3 and 12, had ultrasounds of their carotid arteries — major blood vessels that supply blood to the heart and brain — when they were aged around 30 and then again at around 50.

The team’s analysis found those with high cholesterol levels in childhood were more likely to have the biggest build-up of plaque in the arteries.

The study lead top heart experts to suggest that children as young as 15 should take statins — a cholesterol-lowering pill — to reduce their risk of serious heart disease in the future.