American Academy of Pediatrics, health hazard

[nancylebov]

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-it-for-real-cholesterol-screening-in.html

The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending cholesterol screening for 2 year olds, and statins for children as young as 8-- including children who don't have high cholesterol, just family members with histories of heart disease or who are fat.

Statins can have serious side effects, and haven't been studied for long term use in children or adolescents.

Comments

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

As i commented the other day, i very much do not apporve at all of this. I was in my mid-teens before my doctors first checked my cholesterol, the level of which has remained steady now for at least a quarter century.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I saw that and was worried about it too, specifically because children *need* fats to develope and panicking parents about their cholesterol levels may have really serious side-effects. Also, the people I know who have genetically high cholesterol (400s and up if untreated) are within what the medical community would consider ideal body-weight/BMI ranges.

[captain-button.livejournal.com]

And you can't count on your pharmacy to tell you that they can have bad interactions with antibiotics which screw up your kidneys.

Pharmacies in general seem to have rather missed the point of the computer age, but that's another rant.

Edit: Will we ever know if this really helps? I doubt anyone is doing a 80 year long double-blind study on it.