Sacrificial lambs
New guidelines call for aggressive cholesterol screening and drug therapy in children.
I suppose if you had a cash cow as lucrative as Big Pharma has in statin drugs, you’d keep on milking it as long as you possibly could. But this time they’ve gone too far. Earlier today, the medical industry released new guidelines that call for wider cholesterol screening and more aggressive use of statin drugs — in children.
Yes, you read that right: The next time your child or grandchild goes in for a routine physical exam he or she could leave with a prescription for Lipitor.
And what makes these new guidelines even more shocking is just how contradictory they are. Supposedly, this effort is an attempt to thwart heart problems from developing later on in life. But almost in the same breath, the article I read stated that “there is no evidence to show whether giving statins to a child will lower the risk for heart attack in middle age.” (Of course, there is evidence showing that these drugs don’t particularly lower that risk in adults. But, I digress)
Even more disturbing is the fact that the very same paper explaining these guidelines and claiming that there’s an emerging “epidemic” of elevated cholesterol and increased heart risk in children presents statistics showing that between 1988 and 2000, total cholesterol levels among adolescents, as well as LDL and HDL cholesterol levels, have remained stable — and triglyceride levels have actually dropped!
Putting both of those idiosyncrasies aside, the group issuing the new guidelines, the American Academy of Pediatrics, can’t even say for sure that this completely unproven, seemingly unnecessary approach is safe for kids. They readily admit that there’s “not ‘a whole lot’ of data on pediatric use of cholesterol-lowering drugs,” but they say that the drugs appear to be “generally safe for children” and that “‘the risk of giving statins at a lower age is less than the benefit you’re going to get out of it.’”
I don’t know about you, but “generally safe” isn’t good enough for me. And if the so- called “benefit” kids will get out of statins is anything like the “benefit” adults have been getting over the years (i.e. next to nothing), they’d be better off taking Flintstone vitamins and calling it a day.
I get that Big Pharma and their corporate shills in the medical industry view our health as a business, and, as much as it disgusts me, at least I know that, as adults, you and I have the ability to make our own health-care decisions, including sidestepping statins at all costs. But when sheer capitalistic greed starts infringing on the safety of our children, that distaste we normally feel should turn to outrage — and that outrage should turn to action.
I encourage you to warn to your family and friends — especially those people with small children — about these new guidelines by forwarding them this message. If it keeps even one child off of statins it will be well worth the effort.
Source:
“Cholesterol screening is urged for young,” The New York Times (www.nytimes.com), 7/7/08
