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UT Physician Leads Fight against Childhood Obesity and Hypertension
This summer, Ronald Portman, M.D., professor of pediatric nephrology and hypertension at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, armed health care professionals with new information they can use in the fight against childhood obesity and hypertension.
Ronald Portman, M.D., talks with 14-year-old Nolan
Gajeski during an examination. Portman and
colleagues at the UT Medical School at Houston
are conducting research to identify children at risk
of hypertension.
Photo by Jennifer Canup
In June, Humana Press published Pediatric Hypertension, the first textbook to explore the topic. Portman co-edited the 512-page book, which offers a multi-disciplinary review of all aspects of childhood hypertension – from regulation and assessment of blood pressure in children to proper diagnosis and treatment.
A month earlier, Portman played a key role in the announcement of new federal guidelines recommending that physicians check children for possible heart and blood vessel damage if they have high blood pressure. Portman served on the committee of the National High Blood Pressure Education Program, which wrote the guidelines.
“It is estimated that 1 percent of all children have high blood pressure,” said Portman, president of the International Pediatric Hypertension Association, a group he formed four years ago. “In Houston, we have screened 15,000 children, and what we’re finding is that the percentage is much higher. As many as 4.5 percent of children in Houston have high blood pressure, and we believe that is because of the epidemic of obesity.”
Physicians have long known that children who are hypertensive are more likely to develop complications from high blood pressure when they are adults.
The most recent news is that the complications don’t wait until adulthood. Children with high blood pressure are actually experiencing organ damage while they are still young and growing.
“We have found out that these children have heart damage, thickening of the carotid artery and trouble with school performance,” Portman said. “This doesn’t have to happen. There needs to be a national effort to help children lose weight so they aren’t at risk for developing hypertension. We need to get the vending machines out of schools, revamp school menus and put daily PE classes back into the curriculum.”
On the health care front, Portman said, pediatricians need to screen overweight and obese patients for elevated cholesterol levels, diabetes and high blood pressure – a silent disease that often comes with no symptoms until the damage is already done.
“If you don’t identify these issues and deal with them early on, you are dooming the child to a life of obesity and health problems,” he said.
At UT, Portman and colleagues are conducting research that could reveal early markers of hypertension.
“We are looking at family history and trying to find ways to identify kids who are pre-hypertensive,” Portman said. “The goal is to identify this population of kids who are at risk for hypertension and develop an intervention program so we can prevent high blood pressure before it even happens.”
— By Meredith Raine, Public Affairs