Testing children now for high cholesterol levels may be a good way to predict the risk of the child developing cardiovascular disease and strokes in adulthood, a new study has found.

The study found that measuring artery-clogging LDL cholesterol levels in the blood (sometimes called "bad cholesterol") and calculating a child's body mass index can be good ways to predict atherosclerosis, the gradual narrowing and hardening of arteries, in adults.

The study suggests overweight children with high cholesterol are very likely to develop risk factors for heart disease 20 years later.

The study, published in this week's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, came from the Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. It looked at 486 adults who had been tested for 30 years since childhood for the risk factors.

It found that those with weight, cholesterol and other problems early on wound up with a narrowing of the carotid artery as adults. The artery supplies blood to the brain and obstruction can lead to a stroke.

"Our findings indicate that children and adolescents with several risk factors are at increased risk of developing atherosclerosis in adulthood," said the study.

The risk factors included obesity, high blood fat levels and high blood pressure.

The study suggests that cholesterol and other tests should be initiated earlier than they now are. Most children aren't tested for high cholesterol unless there's a family history. But that may change because of this research and the growing trend of childhood obesity.

"It makes sense that if more children are becoming obese, then we have to be checking cholesterol in more children," says Dr. Bruno deGravio, a pediatrician from Kitchener-Waterloo.

"There's no qusestion that childhood obesity is one of the risk factors in cholesterol. So we need to address that. If kids were less obese I think kids would have less of a problem. "

The study's authors also note that the tests raise red flags action can be taken now to reduce heart disease risk later.

"Reductions in these factors could be potentially achieved in children with lifestyle modifications such as changes in the diet, increasing levels of physical activity and controlling obesity," the authors said.

Dr. Robert Hegele, a spokesman for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, agrees. He notes there is plenty of evidence that lifestyle changes and drug therapies, regardless of when they are started, improve heart health.

The advice from Dr.Gerald Berenson of Tulane University Health Sciences Center is simple:

"Do not become fat. No obesity, no smoking. Alcohol in moderation and exercise daily if possible," he advises.