Daily HealthBeat Tip

Fitness and fatness

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

The conditions that lead to heart disease in grownups may start forming in childhood. And a new study in the journal Pediatric Research looks at one of them � fat and cholesterol levels in the blood.

The study funded by the National Institutes of Health included measurements of 400 high school age teens with varied levels of fitness and fatness. It showed the leanest teens had the best fat and cholesterol blood profiles.

Lead author Dr. Bernard Gutin -- an emeritus professor of pediatrics and physiology at the Medical College of Georgia -- says these profiles are yet another reason for young people to keep their weight under control.

"The best way, perhaps, for a growing child to develop a healthy body composition is to do a lot of vigorous activity, then that child will be more likely to build fat free mass and less likely to accumulate fat." (14 seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: September 9, 2005

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