A powerful doctor’s group is recommending some kids as young as 8 be given cholesterol-lowering drugs.
The drugs would be administered to children who exhibit several risk factors for heart disease, including obesity, high blood pressure and (of course) having too much “bad” cholesterol clogging up their bloodstreams. Ideally, doctors would like to cure these youngsters’ cholesterol woes through diet and exercise; but the American Academy of Pediatrics says if that’s not enough, better to give the kids some cholesterol-fighting meds now than watch them suffer with heart disease later.
“If we are more aggressive about this in childhood, I think we can have an impact on what happens later in life … and avoid some of these heart attacks and strokes in adulthood,” says Dr. Stephen Daniels.
(Associated Press)
