Some kids as young as 8 will need drugs to keep them from getting heart disease, according to new recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The groundbreaking new advisory tells parents and pediatricians to screen high-risk kids for signs that they've already begun to develop heart disease. The screening test, called a fasting lipid profile, measures a child's levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol, "good" HDL cholesterol, and blood fats (triglycerides).
Treatment may be needed for kids found to be at high risk. The blood test will take a number of other risk factors into account: overweight or obesity, family history of heart disease or high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
Normal and too-high cholesterol and triglyceride values for children differ from values for adults. But the AAP advisory comes with charts to help doctors understand children's results.
The initial treatment for kids at risk of heart disease is weight management and improved diet. But some kids as young as 8 will need to start drug treatment. These drugs include the cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. One of these drugs, Pravachol, already is FDA approved for children born into families genetically predisposed to high cholesterol.
Source: www.WebMD.com
Another post on natural approach to cholesterol.
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