This is PediCast.

Welcome to Pediacast, a pediatric podcast for parents.

And now, direct from the campus of nationwide children's, here is your host, Dr. Mike.

Hello, everyone, and welcome. Once again to Pediacast. It is a pediatric podcast for moms and dads.

This is Dr. Mike, coming to you from nationwide at Children's Hospital.

We're in Columbus, Ohio.

It's episode 547 for November 7, 2023.

We're calling this one pediatric preventive cardiology.

I want to welcome all of you to the program.

So the number one cause of death in adults in the United States is heart disease. Now, of course, this is a pediatric

podcast, so you may be asking yourself, what does adult heart disease have to do with pediatrics?

Well, it turns out to be plenty important because the processes that end with adult

cardiovascular disease and life-threatening events such as heart attacks and strokes,

those things actually begin in childhood.

And if we can identify kids who are at high risk for cardiovascular disease later in life and start addressing

their risk factors and providing education on lifestyle choices such as diet and exercise.

If we can do this early, we can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes down the road.

So this is a very important topic for children, teenagers, young

adults, and families. Now, the concept of pediatric preventive cardiology is not really new.

Pediatric cardiologists have been addressing this for a long time. However, as a subspecialty,

pediatric preventive cardiology, compared to other medical

subspecialties, you know, it is sort of new, and it has the potential to impact millions

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