A group of 14 experts who belong to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (a part of the National Institutes of Health) have looked at multiple studies and made these recommendations to improve the cardiovascular health of American children. Among the recommended behaviors they include daily exercise, less high-fat foods and cholesterol screening blood tests by age 11. The American Academy of Pediatrics has endorsed these recommendations. They are suggesting that controlling cholesterol levels in childhood will help prevent heart attacks and strokes in adulthood.
According to WebMD’s Dr Benaroch, “they’re probably right. Increasing exercise and decreasing the risks of obesity, hypertension, and elevated cholesterol in children will almost certainly prolong and improve the lives of adults…Which brings us back to the one part of the recommendations that I believe is going to be problematic: Drawing blood to test cholesterol on all nine-year-olds is not an entirely benign procedure. It will be scary, it will be expensive. And for almost all of the children with elevated cholesterol, the advice will be to improve dietary and exercise habits.”
Stay tuned because I expect we will be hearing more about this topic. More information can be found at Medline, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_118606.html and WebMD.com article at http://blogs.webmd.com/childrens-health/2011/11/is-cholesterol-screening-for-kids-a-good-thing.html
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