Obese children are really 45-year-olds

Being young and obese cannot be good for you. The evidence of how bad is growing.

The Boston Globe reports obese children have the arteries of 45-year-olds.

NEW ORLEANS - Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities that greatly raise their risk of heart disease, say doctors who used ultrasound tests to take a peek inside.

"As the old saying goes, you're as old as your arteries are," said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children's Hospital in Kansas City, who led one of the studies. "This is a wake-up call."

The studies were reported yesterday at an American Heart Association conference.

About a third of American children are overweight and one-fifth are obese. Many parents think that 'baby fat' will melt away as kids get older. But research increasingly shows that fat children become fat adults.