Cholesterol drugs recommended for some 8-year-olds

By LINDSEY TANNER , AP Medical Writer, Medicine & Health / Medications

(AP) -- For the first time, an influential doctors group is recommending that some children as young as 8 be given cholesterol-fighting drugs to ward off future heart problems.

Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

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Posted by Glis 07/07/08 12:52

Rank: 5/5 after 2 votes

They're friggin kids! They can live on bacon and eggs as long as they get a little exercise...but why bother being active when you can take a pill or call it a disease?

'Cholesterol disease'... seriously? Is it caused by eating processed foods and/or being lazy? My cholesterol was high, but I stopped eating garbage and it magically went down. Maybe I'm just lucky, but usually there are no quick fixes, and nature tends to know best.

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Posted by deatopmg 07/07/08 15:12

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Big pharma has 50% of adults taking long term drugs now they're going after kids to expand their market. Problem is that pharma executives and some doctors haven't taken (or don't remember taking) an oath to "DO NO HARM" to their patients.

Follow the money.

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Posted by x646d63 07/07/08 16:57

Rank: 5/5 after 2 votes

I'd bet my left nut (that's the good one) that poor health has much more to do with consumption of HFCS, MSG, and aspartame than anything else.

Here's an idea. Feed your kids real, whole foods, and ensure they get to run around a lot and be kids. Don't stick them in front of a TV; don't let them decide video games are more fun than living; and by god, make sure they don't eat HFCS, MSG and aspartame.

I guess if you can get people dependent on pharma at 8 years old, that's that much more money you can make. God forbid western medicine actually work towards prevention or healing rather than perpetual "treatment."

Full disclosure: I have a two year old who is exceedingly energetic and healthy. He eats almost exclusively organic (as the whole family does) and gets home-cooked meals for almost every meal. On occasion we eat out, but it's not a routine. And we NEVER feed him HFCS, MSG or aspartame (or sucralose.)

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Posted by Arikin 07/07/08 23:45

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x646d63, thank you. You are right on target.

Just to add to the idea that your whole family eats healthy. Kids follow their parents habits. So, if eating healthy is the norm then that is how they will eat through out their lives avoiding the problems of obesity.

Also, there seems to be indications that the mother's diet during pregnancy also influences the child's tendency towards obesity.

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Posted by thales 07/08/08 14:44

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And we NEVER feed him HFCS, MSG or aspartame (or sucralose.)

x6, you seem to be a logical and informed person, so I took the time to do some reading (on wikipedia, I won't lie) on the additives you mentioned here. I was surprised and a little shocked to see that MSG and Aspartame are both known as excitotoxins and so may well have at least some degenerative neurological effects. I have a 9 month old daughter myself, so we'll avoid those additives for sure. However, I couldn't really find anything bad about HFCS (other than the same things that are bad about sugar) or sucralose. Sucralose is an organochloride, true, but very little of it actually gets metabolized. I'm curious as to how you arrived at your - can I call it bias? - against these chemicals.

Obviously these are personal decisions, so please don't take this as a critical attack. I am genuinely curious.