A recommendation to screen and medicate young children for high cholesterol has parents talking, and is sure to spark discussion among physicians about yet another screening and the use of yet another prescription drug for kids.
In what's being called the strongest guidance ever given "on this issue," the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is recommending cholesterol screening for children as young as 2, but no later than age 10.
For the first time, the influential doctors group is also recommending some children as young as 8 be given cholesterol-fighting drugs to prevent future heart problems.
According to Dr. Stephen Daniels who sits on the academy's nutrition committee, the new advice is based on mounting evidence showing that damage
leading to heart disease, the nation's leading killer, begins early in life.
The AAP also cites recent research showing the drugs are generally safe in children.
I checked the physician prescribing information for Lipitor, one of the most commonly prescribed cholesterol lowering drugs in adults. The prescribing information clearly states that Lipitor hasn't been studied in patients younger than ten years of age.
Doses over 20 milligrams haven't been studies in children 10 to 17 years of age. The same is true of another cholesterol-lowering drug, Zocor.
I share the concerns of physicians who are worried about the health effects of the obesity epidemic in children. The current dietary habits of children could lead to the development of heart disease decades earlier that in the past.
But I'm also concerned when a prominent physicians group advocates the use of drugs that have been only tested extensively in adults for the youngest among us.