There Are Two Very Important Things Teens Should Do For Heart Health Later in Life

And the results are pretty astounding. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.

Transcript

00:00We all want to feel loved, but a new study has revealed just how important that feeling and

00:04others really are for our health, especially for those who are still developing in their teen years.

00:08Researchers discovered that teens who said they were more optimistic, happy, and had feelings of

00:13self-esteem, belonging, and love entered adulthood and middle adulthood in better cardiometabolic

00:18health than those who reported poor metrics with regards to those feelings. The study followed

00:233,500 high schoolers from 1994 all the way to 2018, tracking their mental and physical health

00:28over that time, with researchers finding that teens who reported 4 to 5 of the positive

00:32mental health attributes were a whopping 69% more likely to have good cardiometabolic health

00:38later, with only 12% of all of the study's participants maintaining good cardiometabolic

00:43health into adulthood. And while black students reported the most positive mental health

00:47attributes in the exercise, the ones who reported low on those metrics had it extra hard, with

00:51the researchers writing, quote, for black youths who face numerous barriers to achieving and

00:56sustaining optimal cardiometabolic health in adulthood, not having these additional mental

01:00health resources makes a big difference, with the researchers adding that this study outlines

01:04why investing in the mental health of our nation's youth is integral for an aging population's

01:09health later.