Journal of internal medicine
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Specific childhood growth patterns relate to risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease later in life, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. We studied whether CV reactivity, a predictor of CV disease risk, is associated with childhood growth trajectories. ⋯ We found that growth during childhood is associated with CV reactivity to stress later in adulthood. Early life programming of CV reactivity may partly underlie the link between early growth and CV disease.