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"Aortic stiffness is associated with cardiovascular events and morie death." It's as if the aging process has been accelerated in the aortas of obese children, he added. "The normal aorta has elastic qualities that buffer the flow of blood. The obese children had abnormal results on an ultrasound test of the heart and blood vessels that measured how fast blood flo through the body.

When that elasticity is lost, aortic stiffness results a sign of developing cardiovascular disease," said study Gonzalo Harris, from BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, in a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada news release.

Of special note was stiffness of the aorta the body's largest artery, which carries oxygen rich blood to all the other arteries. Canadian researchers evaluated 63 obese children, average age 13, and 55 normal weight children.

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