BMJ  2005;331:1145 (12 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7525.1145-d

Letter

Obesity, like atherosclerosis, starts early in life

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

EDITOR—The importance of starting to prevent obesity in infancy, as reported by Baird et al,1 has a counterpart in atherosclerosis.

My mentor, Dr Paul D White, preached that prevention of coronary atherosclerosis should start the moment a person is born.2 Necropsy studies of war casualties in Korea and Vietnam showed that subclinical atherosclerosis is evident in late adolescence.3 4 Therefore, long range prevention of atherosclerosis and its sequelae, just like obesity, should begin in early childhood.

A saying in China, where the prevalence of obesity continues the upward trend seen in the rest of the world,5 is that fat children grow up to be fat adults—seemingly a universal phenomenon.

Tsung O Cheng, professor of medicine

George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA tcheng@mfa.gwu.edu

Competing interests: None declared.

  1. Baird J, Fisher D, Lucas P, Kleijnen J, Roberts H, Law C. Being big or growing fast: systematic review of size and growth in infancy and later obesity. BMJ 2005;331: 929-31. (22 October.)[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  2. Cheng TO. Prevention of coronary artery disease should start in the young. Circulation 2001;104: e107.[Free Full Text]
  3. Enos WF, Holmes RH, Beyer J. Coronary disease among United States soldiers killed in action in Korea: preliminary report. JAMA 1953;152: 1090-3.[Web of Science]
  4. McNamara JJ, Molot MA, Stremple JF, et al: Coronary artery disease in combat casualties in Vietnam. JAMA 1971;216: 1185-7.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  5. Cheng TO. The current state of cardiology in China. Int J Cardiol 2004;96: 425-39.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

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Relevant Article

Being big or growing fast: systematic review of size and growth in infancy and later obesity
Janis Baird, David Fisher, Patricia Lucas, Jos Kleijnen, Helen Roberts, and Catherine Law
BMJ 2005 331: 929. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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