Posted on 07/06/2008 11:32:04 PM PDT by neverdem
The nation’s pediatricians are recommending wider cholesterol screening for children and more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems.
The new guidelines were to be issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday.
The push to aggressively screen and medicate for high cholesterol in children is certain to create controversy amid a continuing debate about the use of prescription drugs in children as well as the best approaches to ward off heart disease in adults.
But proponents say there is growing evidence that the first signs of heart disease show up in childhood, and with 30 percent of the nation’s children overweight or obese, many doctors fear that a rash of early heart attacks and diabetes is on the horizon as these children grow up.
Previously, the academy had said cholesterol drugs should be considered in children older than 10 if they fail to lose weight after a 6- to 12-month effort. The academy estimated that under the current guidelines, 30 percent to 60 percent of children with high cholesterol were being missed. And for some children, cholesterol-lowering drugs, called statins, may be their best hope of lowering their risk of early heart attack, proponents said.
“We are in an epidemic,” said Dr. Jatinder Bhatia, a member of the academy’s nutrition committee who is a professor and chief of neonatology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. “The risk of giving statins at a lower age is less than the benefit you’re going to get out of it.”
Dr. Bhatia said that although there was not “a whole lot” of data on pediatric use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, recent research showed that the drugs were generally safe for children.
Surprisingly, the paper published in the medical...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If they don’t let us fatties die off, how we ever gonna clean up the gene pool?
Good, solid science.
So Many Vitamins, So Little Time - Truths and Myths About Dietary Supplements
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
I am amazed that these highly ducated Doctors can't figgure out that giving them fish oil, and vitamin D, and sending them out to play in the sun for a half hour a day would do the same thing without the side effects.
What’s patented toxic vitamin D replacement?
I think doctors have it all wrong with trying to lower cholesterol levels. Something else has to be going on and it is probably in the liver and endocrine system.
Mine was 246, now if only I could bowl that good.
Once you have most of the adults taking pills, you have to find new markets.
Awesome idea! Let’s ruin all the pretty little 8 year old livers with statins early on in life. It’s not like healthy eating would make a difference or anything.
The adult population is already taking statin drugs. They have to put kids on the stuff now. If it causes side effects like leg cramps or memory loss, they can just give them some Ritalin.
...”Once you have most of the adults taking pills, you have to find new markets”...
Yes. The very idea of marketing these drugs to children is insane! We will not know for another 20 years what the ultimate consequences of such drugs do to adults. While it is true that they seem to help people who have had heart attacks, no one knows what negative changes they cause for healthy people. Cholesterol is an important substance in our bodies, responsible for healthy cell membrane and the manufacture of vital hormones among other things. My husband suffered muscle damage from a statin he had been on for only a short time and I’ll bet if you speak to your neurologist, you will find that a high proportion of his/her patients who come in with muscle damage have been on statins. I once heard Dr. Rosenthal say on FOX news that all of us should remember that every drug we take is a little bit poisonous. I can also say that throughout my long years as a parent, I changed pediatricians a number of times because of residential moves and I can say that we had only two I would have totally trusted my kid’s lives to. Parents had better think for themselves. We live in a world obsessed with money and power and the medical and pharmaceutical companies are now run by businessmen. Folks, I cannot tell you how upset I am to think that children might be routinely given these potentially dangerous drugs.
My son was diagnosed with high cholesterol readings when he was 8.(Genetic, I believe since we were not particularly unhealthy eaters) Oat bran, added to anything that it could be added to, had it down within a year. Of course, he also started reading labels on any processed foods to cut out any added fats.
Where is the profit in that, my brother? /pherengi mode
Statins? For kids? Every day, I feel like i woke up on the wrong planet. Our news media is in a rush to not tell us anything useful about our politicians who do not follow or obey the Constitution, our Physicians are taught bad theory to "practice" upon their patients and there's a rush to get everyone in the country onto a drug of some sort. Our "food" that's normally consumed here is mostly carbohydrates, the one part of the human diet that humans can live without, causing all kinds of health problems more meats and fats would cure. Our water, our toothpaste is fluoridated, which is a toxin. Don't eat that toothpaste! Everything has sugar in it, and removing sugar from one's diet can cure a lot of what ails. I spent years and years of my youth feeling guilty for the foods I consumed, having been told they were bad, only to learn the nutritionists should be sued out of business.
LOL I sound like an old codger. I eat meats, fats, cheeses, butter on my veggies, drink tea, work hard, and my blood screening was outstanding.
Although I am a biochemist (neurochemist, in fact), I agree. Somehow, although I am loath to say this, we’re in a way victims of ultra-capitalist thinking, which means: if it sells, if it makes you rich in the very short run, it’s morally good. Which is abject nonsense. See only what happens to the aggressive marketing of anti-ADHD stuff. See the throwing of tonnes of benzodiazepines at nervous adults. And now see this.
All of this makes me wonder: how did mankind survive and procreate until 1900 at all? Or did the Deity create the world in 1900, and not when He did, according to the Bible? Is all of recorded history nonsense, planted by the Devil (only joking, of course...).
Benzodiazepines are the most abused but officially prescribed sedatives ever. Originally they were partly designed to replace the more dangerous barbiturates (the stuff that did in Marilyn Monroe, amongst many others); and partly to calm soldiers in action, to steady their nerves and muscles. But their ‘success’ surpassed all expectations, and now many millions are addicted to them, in ever increasing doses, so that for many people they equal the effects of heroin and morphine. Once you suddenly stop, your heart gets racing, you sweat yourself dry for weeks on end, you get nightmares and don’t dare to go outdoors for fear of meeting other people.
I am writing all of this because it’s so dangerous to combat bodily imbalances, or mental fears, with drugs that are effective in the very short run, but dangerous in the long run, if not even addictive in the extreme.
There is an insidious relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession. How is it that doctors get free trips around the world, or year-long subscriptions to major sports events, or ‘friendly visits by beautiful female representatives’ of those companies, as a trade-off for prescribing those drugs? I know a doc personally who got invited to a top soccer match in England in the Euro Championship 2000 disguised as a ‘symposium’. The symposium consisted of a 10-minute promo-talk accompanied by caviar and champagne just prior to the match in question - and then it was party time all along.
I know only one thing here: this has to stop.
I’m not really informed on statins, other than to know I changed my diet ( added omega 3’s, etc.) and brought my cholesterol down when it began to creep up because I refused to go on a statin. I’m not opposed to drugs, but I take drugs for MS (that’s a big enough load on my liver) and didn’t want to have to add an extra med, especially one that had muscle pain as a possible side effect.)
But I thought the latest research showed that although the statins lowered cholesterol they didn’t affect the heart attack death rate, and it was presenting a quandry for the docs. Did I dream that, or did I read it somewhere?
How's that bowel movement coming along? I have no problem with your diet, but I disagree with screenings. They are the precursor to the idiocy of giving out point drugs to mask a systemic problem. Yes, there are a small number of people that need a drug because their body can't regulate, but that ability was probably lost from some other misprescibed drugs.
Darn, I forgot one issue -
it’s called IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). It is often wrongly diagnosed, and combated by wrong medications (fibre-rich nutrition, for instance).
IBS often accompanies mild depression, but also exists in itself. It is caused by an imbalance in the serotonin-metabolism. And it means: seemingly having way too much ‘gas’ in your intestines (not resolvable by farting, by the way); and a constant feeling of uneasiness in public. Another item that’s often medicated the wrong way. A very mild dose of SSRIs (serotonin reuptake inhibitors) can work wonders without influencing your psychic well-being.
Doctors should do more mandatory after-schooling instead of making world trips paid for by the pharma companies.
You forgot "sometimes". And even then a placebo would probably do as well as the SSRI dosage you are talking about.
And lets not stop there, whoa! those car salespeople just go over the top. Look at all the fools who bought SUVs despite the price of gas going up and Globull Warming! THAT has to stop.
And what about shoes!!! How many do women need?!? The shoes industry caters to the mental illness of women. THAT has to stop too.
Lets form a posse and ride tonight to clear our lands of these cretins who force us to do things we would otherwise never consider.
Prediction: 5 years from now some large study will be published that shows statins having no impact of cardiovascular health of kids with high CHE concentrations. I'm willing to wager 120 pairs of shoes. (I will win but even so, she would never notice them missing)
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