Hospital cardiologists HLA San Carlos de Dénia recommend sports check-ups to children who practice sports regularly to avoid the risk that the minor may suffer a sudden death. "The incidence of coronary problems in children is very low, although there may be congenital heart disease, undetected, that is well tolerated by age but, if not identified in childhood, can overload the heart and cause clinical symptoms too late" , says Dr. Ana Rodríguez Argüeso, a cardiologist at the Dianense center.
The most common symptoms that should prompt a heart check are any abnormalities such as dizziness, feeling short of breath, bluish discoloration of the lips, blurred vision, extreme fatigue or syncope. Like other routine check-ups, such as hearing, eye, footprint tests or vaccines, the heart is the motor organ of the body and should be checked routinely regardless of our age.
There are many types of congenital heart defects, such as holes in the heart, blood flow obstructions, abnormal blood vessels, heart valve abnormalities, or a heart that has not fully developed.
Nor should we forget the cardiovascular risks that begin in childhood, warned by the Spanish Society of Cardiology in its latest 2020 report 'Cardiovascular risk from childhood'. The specialists propose several measures to take care of the cardiovascular health of future adults: one more hour of physical activity a week in nursery and primary education, the commitment to multisport schools, supervised sports activities on holidays and vacation periods, improvements in the management and quality of the food supply in school canteens and in homes, replacing the current contents of vending machines with others with healthy foods (water, whole fruit or dairy products without sugar) and the creation of a seal of quality for schools that meet a series of criteria to be monitored.
