Cardiovascular heart disease is the biggest cause of death in adults and can be well guarded against through good old fashioned healthy eating and exercise. This is the reason we have so many guidelines for reduce risk factors to prevent heart disease.

Research has now shown that kids are also at risk of heart disease and poor health, particularly if they are overweight or obese. As parents it is your responsibility to set guidelines for your children as early as possible to prevent them from increasing the risk of heart problems in later life.

Many of the poor dietary habits you, me, and other adults have now were picked up as kids from watching older siblings or our parents do the same.

The American Heart Association (AHA) has put together the AHA Guidelines for Primary Prevention of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Beginning in Childhood to help parents and health care professionals manage risk factors children might have that will cause heart problems in later life.

How to prevent heart disease in children

Although the document does not reveal any new information, it provides a lot of useful information in one place to help you to give your children a healthy heart, appropriate bodyweight, keeping them physically active and avoid smoking and poor quality foods.

Some of these recommendations include the following:

• Variety. They encourage eating a range of fruits, vegetables, dairy, fish, legumes, lean meat and poultry. They do suggest grains as well, but these should be avoided as they are high in carbohydrates but low in real nutritional value.
• Lower salt intake. By lowering and limiting salt intake to less than 6g a day, you can prevent the clogging of arteries which is major factor in heart attack risks later in life.
• Less sugar. Another major cause of diabetes, obesity and poor health is the insulin spike caused by too much sugar in a childs diet.
• No smoking. It should go without saying, but from a very early age children should be aware of the dangers of smoking and try to avoid it and second hand smoke wherever possible.
• Daily activity. Each day your children should be doing up to 60 minutes, sometimes more, vigorous and fun physical activities to improve their cardiovascular system.
• Less sedentary time. Time spent watching TV, playing video games, talking on the phone and so on should be limited to less than 2 hours per day.

How to identify children with a high risk of heart disease

The best way to identify risk of heart disease quickly in children is to look for cardiovascular disease in parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles in the family. Risks such as:

• Being obese or overweight
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease before 55 in men or 65 in women.
• Smoking

If there is a family history of high cholesterol or early heart disease, children can and probably should start getting tested for lipids at around 2 years old. Kids with other risk factors can have lipid and lipoprotein analysis to check for abnormalities.

Another guideline is to have what is called a desirable lipid profile, which basically means to have blood tests below the following:

• Total cholesterol > 170 mg/dl (borderline), >200 mg/dl (elevated)
• LDL > 110 mg/dl (boderline), >130 mg/dl (elevated)
• HDL < 35 mg/dl
• Triglycerides > 150 mg/dl (elevated)

How to treat children with a high risk of heart disease

The most effective way to promote a healthy heart is to follow proper nutrition for kids, including fitness changes and is sometimes best done with the help of a trained dietician. For children with an LDL cholesterol level higher than 160mg/dl may need to take medication to lower the condition.

Follow these simple rules and you should be able to prevent cardiovascular disease in children without the need for any medication.