NEWS--UNFIT OBESE TEENS

[Guest guest]

Here's a test that nearly one-third of the nation's teenagers would

flunk: a treadmill test.

A new study measuring physical fitness tells us that one-third of

U.S. teens, and nearly 15 percent of younger adults, showed a poor

level of cardiovascular fitness on an eight-minute treadmill test.

Mercedes Carnethon, a researcher from Northwestern University, said

fitness is directly related to heart disease risk factors, such as

high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.

" Approximately one in three teens are in low fitness in the U.S.

population, " she said. " And what we see is that already, these teens

who are in low fitness have higher levels of heart disease risk

factors. "

It may not be surprising when you consider previous research that

found that about 16 percent of U.S. schoolchildren are seriously

overweight. Still, the head of the obesity program at Children's

Hospital in Boston said it's " very concerning. "

The study also looked at fitness in adults ages 20 to 49, and found

about 15 percent in low fitness, with heart disease risk factors.

And there's more.

" Some individuals are in worse shape than others in this country,

namely African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and females as opposed

to males, " Carnethon said in a news release from the journal.

The researchers studied data from treadmill fitness tests on about

5,000 Americans and used that data to estimate nationwide fitness.

The findings are published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of

the American Medical Association.

But people who had very high cholesterol, blood pressure or other

heart disease risk factors couldn't take part in the treadmill test

because of their high-risk health. So Carnethon said the study's

estimates of poor fitness may be low, since they don't include those

people who were too unhealthy to take part.

Carnethon said teen and young adults' lifestyle patterns will impact

their risk of heart disease later in life. She said she wishes more

young people would understand the importance of physical fitness,

for its short-term and long-term health benefits.

" We need to find ways to help teens and young adults become more

physically active so that we can reverse these trends toward the

development of heart disease risk factors in middle age, " she said.