A simple blood test can identify whether children with obesity are at greater risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes and liver disease, a new study has shown.
Lipid biomarkers in children and young people with obesity have been discovered by scientists which highlight whether they have an increased risk of developing certain chronic illnesses.
A team from the University of Copenhagen ran a year-long lifestyle intervention among a group of children and teenagers with these altered lipid profiles, action which lowered the levels of these lipid biomarkers.
The scientists say this shows just how important early intervention is for children and teenagers with obesity.
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Professor Torben Hansen, co-senior author of the study, said: “This study reinforces the need to treat childhood obesity far more seriously, as it increases the risk of developing a range of diseases that lower quality of life.
“Thankfully, we have shown that early intervention can reverse the risk and allow children and teenagers the possibility of living long disease-free lives as adults.”
There are predictions that by 2030, more than 250 million children and teenagers will be classed as having obesity.
Children with the condition are at risk of developing insulin resistance, fatty liver, and high blood pressure.
These in turn can lead to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and liver disease, as they get older.
Experts believe that these diseases can be caused by changes to the body’s lipids, which are fats and oils, including cholesterol, which are involved in things like energy storage and cellular signalling.
What is less well understood is how these lipids change in children and teenagers with obesity and their link to early cardiometabolic problems.
The University of Copenhagen scientists examined data from 4,000 children that included children with obesity. They used specialist technology to map hundreds of individual lipid species, allowing them to analyse and compare the differences in lipid profiles between 958 youngsters with obesity or overweight and 373 with normal weight.
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From here, the team were able to gain a greater understanding of obesity-altered lipids and their connection to greater cardiometabolic risk.
To see if this risk to children with obesity could be reduced, 186 of the participants took part in an obesity management programme, resulting in 83% of the group reducing their weight along with levels of harmful lipids.
The changes in lipids could go some way to explaining how weight loss links to improvements in cardiometabolic traits.
Postdoc Yun Huang said: “Our study shows that the impact of cardiometabolic associated lipid species emerges early in life in children with obesity, particularly affecting liver function and glucose metabolism.
“These risk lipid species could potentially be explored further as biomarkers for diagnosing or predicting cardiometabolic risk in children at high risk, offering new insights for early detection and intervention.”
Read more Nat Med.
