Teacher's Resource Guide - American Heart Association

teacher’s Guide
The American Heart
Association and YOU!
Working for Kids’ Health
Our children are precious. We’d do anything to protect them, care for them and make them happy. We’d also do anything to
make sure they live long, healthy lives. That’s why the American Heart Association dedicates so many resources to improving
children’s health.
Read on for educational scripts and discussion prompts to help you teach your students about their hearts, nutrition, physical
activity and how they can protect their health.
With your support, we can help protect and improve children’s health. Your efforts to educate your
students and raise funds for world-class research and outreach are vital to improving kids’ lives.
The Challenge — the Facts
Some Are Born With It — Congenital Heart Defects
Congenital heart defects are the most common form of infant death from birth defects.
• Each year about 36,000 babies are born with a heart defect.
• Each year nearly twice as many children die from congenital cardiovascular defects as from all forms of childhood
cancers combined.
Many children are alive today because of treatments not available even 10 years ago. Thanks to your efforts, world-class research
and advancements funded by the American Heart Association have saved and changed their lives.
Others Acquire Risk — An Alarming Trend
While some kids are born with heart problems, others are at risk of developing them because of poor nutrition and lack of
physical activity. Sadly, childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions.
• Today, nearly one in three American kids and teens is overweight or obese.
• Obesity and being overweight have a negative impact on almost every organ system in the body.
• Children who are overweight from the ages of seven to 13 may develop heart disease as early as age 25.
• Children in their early teens who are obese have arteries similar to 45-year-olds.
• Obesity takes a physical toll and also often causes children to suffer from low self-esteem, negative body image
and depression.
Diabetes and Heart Disease
Diabetes makes the risk for heart attack especially high. At least 65 percent of people with diabetes die of some form of heart
disease or stroke when the disease is left untreated.
• As many as 45 percent of children with newly diagnosed diabetes have type 2 rather than type 1 (previously called
juvenile diabetes), which is largely preventable with healthy diet and physical activity.
To learn more, visit americanheart.org/healthierkids.
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