Today, health problems like high blood pressure and obesity are becoming more common around the world, even though doctors and health organizations are working hard to encourage healthy habits like eating better and exercising more.
Recently, the American Heart Association pointed to a new possible reason why high blood pressure is rising: stiff arteries.
When arteries — the blood vessels that carry blood from the heart to the rest of the body — become stiff, they can’t stretch and move as easily. This makes it harder for the heart to pump blood, which can lead to high blood pressure.
In middle-aged and older adults, stiff arteries are already known to be a strong warning sign for heart disease and even early death.
Scientists are now doing studies to find out if it’s possible to reverse this stiffness and improve health.
But when it comes to children and young adults, we still don’t know as much. So far, stiff arteries in young people are only seen as a warning sign for future health problems later in life, because there hasn’t been enough research done on young, otherwise healthy people.
A recent review article looked at studies about arterial stiffness and found that it might be an early risk factor not just for high blood pressure, but also for other serious problems like obesity, insulin resistance, abnormal cholesterol levels, and type 2 diabetes.
Insulin resistance happens when the body stops responding properly to insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar. All these conditions are linked to bigger health risks later in life, including heart disease.
People often ask what causes arteries to stiffen in teenagers and young adults. Research shows that several things can make it worse. If a mother smokes during pregnancy, it can affect the child’s blood vessels.
If a young person smokes during their teenage years, that can also lead to stiff arteries. Eating too much salt, having certain genes that run in the family, being overweight, and having high blood pressure from a young age can all increase the chances of having stiff arteries during adolescence.
When young people have stiff arteries, it sets the stage for bigger problems later. It can lead to high blood pressure and other metabolic problems, meaning issues with how the body uses energy. Over time, these problems can damage organs like the heart, kidneys, and brain.
This is why it’s important to find ways to reduce or even reverse arterial stiffness early in life. If we can help young people keep their arteries healthy, it could lower their risk of getting high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes when they get older. However, scientists say we need more research to figure out the best ways to protect young people’s arteries.
The study was done by Andrew Agbaje and his team and was published in the Journal of Hypertension. It highlights how important it is to start thinking about heart health early — not just when people are older, but even when they are still young and feeling healthy.
Protecting artery health from a young age might be one of the best ways to fight the rise of heart disease in the future.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how to remove plaques that cause heart attacks, and results showing a new way to prevent heart attacks, strokes.
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