13-Year-Old Child Had Blood Vessels Like an 80-Year-Old Because His Father Smoked at Home

13-year-old Shanghai boy Tongtong (pseudonym) had been complaining of headaches for a long time. When he was taken to the hospital, his systolic blood pressure was as high as 180, startling Professor Wang Jiguang, director of Ruijin Hospital and president of the Shanghai Hypertension Institute.

“His parents had normal blood pressure, and all clinical tests came back normal. Why were the child’s blood vessels showing severe endothelial damage, with changes similar to the atherosclerosis of an 80-year-old, even to the point where the pulse disappeared?” the doctor was baffled.

When the boy’s father was waiting outside the clinic for consultation, a faint smell of smoke drifting over from a distance finally made Wang Jiguang realize, “Could it be secondhand smoke?”

It turned out that the boy’s father had been smoking at home for more than a decade, and he was heavily addicted, smoking 3-5 packs a day. For the sake of the child, the father resolved never to smoke at home again. With the father’s cooperation and individualized medication treatment from the doctor, the child’s blood pressure gradually began to fall. It has now returned to normal, tests show that the vascular endothelium has also basically returned to normal, and the blood vessels have fully recovered. Medication will be stopped in the near future.

The incidence of hypertension in children is 2%

An epidemiological survey in Australia looked at three groups: children who smoked while their parents did not; parents who smoked while their children did not; and both parents and children who smoked. The results found that secondhand smoke caused even more serious damage to the vascular endothelium than smoking itself.

Wang Jiguang said that more and more children and adolescents with hypertension are being found in outpatient clinics. And hypertension may affect a child for life.

He once treated another 13-year-old child who suddenly became overweight at age 10. The parents always thought the child simply ate too much and that gaining weight was normal. But the child’s grades dropped from above average to near the bottom. In a hurry, the father took the child to the hospital, where they found the child actually had hypertension. Further examination revealed hypothyroidism, which caused the child’s intelligence to remain at around a 10-year-old level.

Experts call for additional items in physical exams

Wang Jiguang pointed out that increased intake of oil, salt and sugar, lack of exercise, rising academic pressure, and heavy exposure to secondhand smoke are all causes of hypertension in adolescents. At present, the incidence of hypertension in children is about 2%. According to physical examination data from Shanghai schools in 2010 for students aged 7 to 17, the prevalence of hypertension among boys and girls reached 6.9% and 6.0% respectively, with similar rates across age groups, and data from other regions are consistent.

In clinical practice, many children are found to have hypertension during physical exams before the college entrance examination, which prevents them from applying for certain university majors. Among pediatric hypertension patients, many are born with congenital diseases, but most are diagnosed only after visiting the hospital for proteinuria, by which time kidney function has already been damaged.

Experts suggest paying attention to blood pressure monitoring in children and adolescents, especially children from smoking households, who should have their blood pressure checked every year. For adolescent hypertension, if risk factors and causes are removed before the growth period ends and active treatment is provided, the blood vessels often can fully recover thanks to their rapid development.

It seems that vascular care is no longer just something older people need to worry about. Besides secondhand smoke, staying up late, mental stress, eating a meat-heavy diet, and getting little exercise are all potential “risk factors.” Check how old your blood vessels are now. Blood vessels are like water pipes; after 30, if you don’t take care of them, they will start to “rust.”