July
2008
The Beginning of the End?
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Driving my daughter Devyn to the airport yesterday morning at 5:30 (she’s off to a summer-school program in Florence) I was stunned by what I was hearing on my radio. Apparently, the American Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending much more aggressive cholesterol screening for children and urging that kids as young as eight be given statin drugs and/or other anti-cholesterol meds to fend off potential heart disease later in life. Clearly, this is a last-ditch attempt to somehow get control over an increasing problem with childhood obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol issues. What happened to dispensing advice on exercise and healthy eating? Just doesn’t pay enough? On the other hand, in their defense, something tells me they still know very little about either, hence the drugs.
Of course, if you are a regular reader here, you know that the cholesterol-heart disease connection is tenuous at best. The fat-cholesterol-heart disease connection is even more ridiculous when you understand the lead roles of glucose, insulin and inflammation in atherosclerosis. Unfortunately, we seem to have reached a critical mass (mass hysteria?) among physicians drinking the Kool-Aid dispensed by Big Pharma.
Gotta love this line from the New York Times piece: “Dr. Bhatia said that although there was not “a whole lot” of data on pediatric use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, recent research showed that the drugs were generally safe for children.” Hey, Doc, there is zero evidence to show that giving statins to kids will reduce their chances of having a heart attack later in life. Just wait until the known and common side effects like lethargy, dizziness and short-term memory loss kick in with those kids. Then you can diagnose them with ADHD and give them Adderall and Ritalin. Cool.
I have said many times on this site that statin drugs are (in my opinion - I have to disclaim it that way) the single biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the American public. Scariest of all is that fact that so many doctors are buying into this idea that everyone might be better served by lowering cholesterol with compounds that interfere with important biochemical pathways - pathways that are there for a good reason. We’ve done several posts on this so there’s no need to spin it again here, except for me to state cynically that if I thought a type 2 diabetic was the ideal customer (20-40 years of meds at $200 a month) wait until these kids hit the Insurance System (50+ years on statins AND all the drugs to fight the side effects AND all the type 2 diabetes drugs they’ll need because they still haven’t addressed the main issues (diet and exercise). It’s the beginning of the end of personal responsibility in health.
Further Reading:
The Definitive Guide to Cholesterol
Deconstructing Healthcare in America - A Modest Proposal
8 Foods to Lower LDL Cholesterol, Boost HDL Cholesterol and Fight Inflammation
Control Your Lifestyle, Control Your Genes
I heard this last night and almost had a heart attack myself. This is absolutely ridiculous. How many more band-aids can we put on diabetes, heart disease and obesity? Why does it seem so logical, yet all the solutions that we hear about (except from places like MDA) are so illogical? It’s absurd. It’s like the dumbing of America — maybe civilization.
That sounds much more cynical than I expected. On another note, my 30 day challenge is going great!
Unbelievable. I saw they’re recommending lowfat milk for children as well. Haven’t they noticed that obesity has been rising at the same time as lowfat milk consumption in the US, and that whole milk consumption has been declining?
I don’t know why this is such a bad thing. First, nobody should be listening to these guys, and anyone who does has made that choice in the face of reasonable alternatives like, say, MDA. Second, the more craziness of this nature that they publish, the more quickly their audiences will attrite.
The source of any real suffering here is that people are willing to abdicate responsibility for their health-related decision making to doctors, drug companies, insurance companies, the government, the NYT, et al. If it weren’t for the hordes of people lined up to buy what they’re told to buy, all this rhetoric would be just somebody’s wasted breath.
I saw this as well yesterday and was utterly appalled! My 2-year-old daughter’s pediatrician told me last year to expect the organization’s low fat milk recommendation. (Because my daughter is normal weight and the added fats are so important for brain development, she told me to ignore it outright.)
It’s funny, I think I thought the same thing about the world (or all sanity at least) coming to an end with this declaration. I read the article at the same time I read some reviews and op-eds about the new kids’ movie WALL-E. My daughter is too young for the movies, but I was intrigued by the premise of this one. An interesting theme to the movie: the 22nd Century and all humans are floating above the earth in a spaceship (earth was rendered uninhabitable by pollution, etc.). A huge corporation keeps everyone on the ship fat and complacent with sweetened drinks. Hmm. Doesn’t sound too futuristic to me.
Have people lost the ability to think and reason beyond their next sugar fix??? Even when it comes to your own children?
I am disgusted with our pharmaceutical-based healthcare system. I can’t discuss this issue without almost becoming enraged.
I have enough personal and family experience with this to fill a book (sadly this makes me a member of the majority). When health care professionals chronically push drugs that should only be utilized in worst case scenarios - I can’t imagine how people with a little less backbone or intelligence can escape with their health or wallet intact.
Some doctors treat statins like they are candy. After a lifetime of very low cholesterol and blood pressure, my mom’s numbers have started creeping up but are still in a very healthy range, well below 200 and a 3.2 ratio. This creep has coincided with a weight gain brought on from inactivity owing to COPD. (She has quit smoking) A cardiologist diagnosed her with “pure hypercholestemia” and put her on Zocor. Her GP opposes the diagnosis and the prescription. My mom has wised up and will go off the medication with her GP’s supervision.
Amen to everything stated here. Unbelievable!
I was shocked, and blogged about this too. Replacing actual wholesome foods (like whole milk!) with drugs that are completely untested on children is absolutely shameful. It sounds like there has been enormous backlash in the last 24 hours. It’ll be interesting to see if the recommendation changes.
Food Is Love
Peter had a great post on this topic today:
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2008/07/statin-stupidity-again.html
well, playing devil’s advocate here, i think it’s gotten to the point where doctors have to FORCE us to lose weight. just because a doctor tells a patient to “eat less, move more”, doesn’t mean he or she will. the child can’t fend for themselves, and what’s to say the parent will listen if the doctor DOES give them sound nutritional advice? it’s more effective for the doctor to prescribe a medication, albeit an ineffective one, than to chance the parents not setting a good example for their child(ren). regardless, if putting kids on cholesterol medication will make their parents wake up, then i’m all for it. because just preaching about it doesn’t seem to be working.
Nicole - I do not understand your points?
It is not just that statins are ineffective it is that they may be potentially harmful.
If you read the post above, you will note that choleserol is generally not an issue anyway
Plus, if parents see their kids on drugs I think they’d be less likely to effect the necessary lifestyle changes. They wouldn’t see them as necessary if their children are being drugged.
To add to Chris’s last statment, I wonder if parents who were told that their children needed lifelong medication wouldn’t be even MORE likely to give in to the desire to “spoil” their kid with junk… If they’re dumb enough to believe an unproven drug will work then they might be dumb enough to think, “Poor little Johnny deserves some ice cream & a movie because he’s sick.”
I don’t mean to come as terribly negative, but there are TONS of unfit parents out there, as evidenced by the TONS of unfit (and by that I mean unhealthy) children everywhere. When I see a ten year old that resembles a beach ball it both saddens & infuriates me. With damaging behaviors reinforced throughout their formative years, some children seemed destined for the miserable lives their parents are living.
This is a quote from the press release -
“The statement also recommends the use of reduced-fat dairy products, such as two percent milk, for children as young as one year of age for whom overweight or obesity is a concern.”
Why would anyone have a concern about a one year old being OBESE?! What could they possibly be eating to make them obese?
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