The buzz these days is the pediatric cholesterol lowering guideline released by the American  Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on Monday.  CNN published an article yesterday that summarizes the new cholesterol screening guideline, and cholesterol lowering recommendations for children as young as 1 year old.

Among the AAP cholesterol busting recommendations is the one to give cholesterol lowering  statin drugs to children 8 years old and older, and to feed low fat  milk to 1 year old babies.

I find it inconceivable that the mainstream medical community could advocate the administering of prescription drugs  that are known to have deleterious side effects to children when the natural solution is in simple lifestyle changes.

It seems to me that we have become a nation of quick health fixes, completely controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. Have doctors simply become so undaunted that they’ve just settled into the “band aid” mentality, or have they been manipulated by the drug companies to the point where their good judgment has been impaired?

When I was a child, I used to hear my mom say that an “ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.” Well, giving  young children  statin drugs does not provide not even an ounce of cure since these drugs don’t address the root cause of the disease; hence, they have to be taken for life. Furthermore, the possible side effects of these drugs are plenty, and extremely deleterious to one’s health and wellbeing.

In 2004, Mike Adams published an article at Natural News in which he lists all of the known side effect of statin drugs.

•    Nausea
•    Irritability and short tempers
•    Hostility
•    Homicidal impulses
•    Rapid loss of mental clarity
•    Amnesia
•    Kidney failure
•    Diarrhea
•    Muscle aching and weakness
•    Tingling or cramping in the legs
•    Inability to walk
•    Problems sleeping
•    Constipation
•    Impaired muscle formation
•    Erectile dysfunction
•    Temperature regulation problems
•    Nerve damage
•    Mental confusion
•    Liver damage and abnormalities
•    Neuropathy
•    Destruction of CoQ10, a vital nutrient for health.

Why would anyone want a child to pay such a high price to lower cholesterol when simple, fun and healthy lifestyle changes can do the magic cheaply, and permanently?  

There is no denying that childhood obesity is an escalating epidemic that needs to be addressed urgently;  however, subjecting young  children to taking cholesterol lowering drugs is certainly neither the cure for high cholesterol, nor the answer to the obesity epidemic that is plaguing our children.

The answer is in prevention. We need to address the root cause of the problem early, right now while they are still children, and we can instill in them healthy lifestyle habits that will follow them into adulthood.