Screen Children For Cholesterol? Shouldn’t we understand cholesterol first.

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Screen Children For Cholesterol? Shouldn’t we understand cholesterol first.

Cholesterol screening has become a common occurrence in doctors offices, helping to make Lipitor the blockbuster drug that it is. Dr. Oz has said that people who have been on these drugs long term has significant damage to the liver on autopsy. The fear of our own mortality drives the sale of a medication of dubious value that damages liver and muscle tissue, yet in many people who have high cholesterol, it does not stop them from living into their 80’s and 90’s.

Now, certain voices are clammering to screen children. Really? Lets get them started on these drugs for what reason? Granted, many of our children are more sedentary than we were before the video game and texting generation and many of us played outside. Sure, they need more exercise and for many parents, we try our best to get our children to stay active and be healthy and quite honestly it is not easy. Cholesterol screening is a waste of our healthcare resources and sets a dangerous prescident. Cholesterol has become a healthcare bogeyman and people take the meds out of fear, rather out of knowledge, which is yet another symptom of what is wrong with todays healthcare system. It is part of the sickness paradigm which needs to be a wellness paradigm.

Cholesterol screening would be great for the drug industry because it will sell more drugs. Perhaps these are the folks who are really pushing for these screenings, the doctors and health specialists who have been lobbied to push the recommendation which is in their best interest, not ours.

Read the article here.

Screening Children for Cholesterol

By PERRI KLASS, M.D.

It doesn’t have a particularly snappy title, but the Summary Report of the Expert Panel on Integrated Guidelines for Cardiovascular Health and Risk Reduction in Children and Adolescents makes for surprisingly accessible and interesting reading.

For one thing, it’s well written, especially for a scientific report and a set of clinical guidelines. For another, the report, published in late 2011 in the journal Pediatrics, takes on a question at once basic and profound: What do we know about how the hearts of children become the hearts of adults?

To look at this question, the panel, convened by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, reviewed numerous research studies and suggested new clinical guidelines for monitoring — and improving — cardiovascular health in childhood.

But one recommendation in particular has been the subject of much controversy within the pediatric profession: that pediatricians screen all children for cholesterol by doing a blood test in 9- to 11-year-olds. Until now, only children considered at high risk for cholesterol problems were to be routinely screened.

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