HHS HealthBeat (January 03, 2006)

Unfit youth

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

With their young bodies going for them, teen-agers should be among the most fit people in America. But a study shows that about a third of teens don’t have their bodies going.

Northwestern University researcher Mercedes Carnethon reviewed data kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how teens did on treadmill tests. Her study was in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Carnethon says that, unless these teens get more active, they could grow up at risk for the same problems that afflict their parents’ and grandparents’ generations:

"We need to find ways to help teens and young adults become more physically active so that we can reverse these trends towards the development of heart disease risk factors in middle age." (10 seconds)

More time doing physical activity would be a place to start.

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: May, 16 2006