Elevated blood pressure becoming more common in children.

NBC Nightly News reported that new research has “found an alarming increase in children with high blood pressure.”

        The Los Angeles Times (7/16, Morin, 692K) “Science Now” blog reports that researchers found that “the risk of elevated blood pressure among children and teens has risen 27% over a 13-year period, and is probably caused by over-consumption of salt and rising obesity.” For the study, published in Hypertension, investigators “examined health and nutrition data for more than 11,600 children ages 8 to 17” who were participating in National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. The researchers “concluded that changes in eating habits over the last two decades, dependence on processed foods and excessive salt intake were putting more U.S. children at future risk of stroke, heart disease and kidney failure.”

        On its website, NBC News (7/16) reports, “The damage from far too much dietary sodium has been especially pronounced in African-American girls, accounting for much of the higher rate of increase in girls compared to boys, said Daniels, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the chair of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s panel that created guidelines for cardiovascular health and risk reduction in children.”