Many people believe that their young age is a guarantee of absolute protection against the infarct. In reality they do not know that food habits and lifestyle strongly influence, from childhood, the risk of suffering a myocardial infarction.
A biopsy study of 300 American soldiers who fell in the Korean War (1950-1953) showed that 77.3% of the hearts examined had some evidence of atherosclerosis. Yet they were very young soldiers, given that the average age of the sample was just 22.1 years.
In 2010, one study1 showed that obese children and adolescents (6-19 years) had a CIMT similar to that of 45-year-old adults.
CIMT stands for Carotid artery intima media thickness . Also known as IMT (intima-media thickness), this test measures the thickness of the intimate and medium tunes of the carotids. In other words, it detects the thickness of the two innermost layers of the carotid wall, through ultrasounds. Several studies have shown that the increase in carotid IMT significantly increases the risk of undergoing cerebro and cardiovascular events, ischemic heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
