
Four Tall Chefs – Vickie Wade
https://www.etsy.com/shop/VickieWadeFineArt
Kids with metabolic syndrome have at least three of these risk factors:
excessive belly fat
high blood pressure (hypertension)
abnormal levels of blood fats (lipids), including cholesterol and triglycerides
hyperglycemia (high blood sugar)
You might be surprised to learn that these are problems kids can have. After all, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are usually things older people grumble about.
Not so anymore. Thanks to the rising obesity epidemic in young people, kids and teens are getting these conditions — and they’re getting them earlier than ever before. Some estimates say that nearly 1 in 10 teens — and over a third of obese teens — have metabolic syndrome. And a study of 375 second- and third-graders found that 5% had metabolic syndrome and 45% had one or two risk factors for it.
This is something parents should know about, especially because they can take steps to lessen their kids’ chances of developing metabolic syndrome or the risk factors that lead to it.