Cholesterol Drugs For Eight Year Olds?
21 Jul 2008
The American Academy of Pediatrics claims that children who are at high risk for developing heart disease should be prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs (CLDs) as early as eight years of age. This decision is either the ultimate in medical madness or a desperate and futile attempt to save obese children from early heart attack.
We’ve known for years that atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries) starts early in life. Autopsies on young soldiers during the Korean war showed extensive evidence of this disease. And we know that obese children almost invariably become obese adults, perfect candidates for diabetes, atherosclerosis and heart attack.
But if I had a young child with an elevated cholesterol level would I rush for CLDs? I would if there were a genetic history of hypercholesterolemia and early family deaths. But otherwise I’d search worldwide for a better solution.
Why do I question the use of CLDs in young children? It’s because I’m concerned even about the overwhelming use by adults today as no one knows the long-term metabolic effect of this medication.Too many people consider cholesterol an evil substance, related to the devil. But cholesterol is a necessary part of every cell in the body, needed to keep cell membranes and nerve sheaths healthy. It produces bile acids to help digestion and manufactures sex hormones. Far from being the devil, cholesterol in body cells keeps us alive.
I’m not the only doctor asking, “Is it natural to take a long-term medication that prevents the liver from producing cholesterol day after day?” Some critics believe the current theory that cholesterol causes heart disease is dead wrong.
Dr. Jim Wright, a British Columbia researcher, says that CLDs may be doing more harm than good. He claims that they only decrease the risk of heart attack by a mere 1.4 percent over a three to five year period.
A major study called “Prosper” showed that CLDs replaced one devil with another. Patients taking CLD’s had fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease, but an equal number of deaths from cancer. So take your choice!
Dr. Duane Graveline, physician, scientist and former astronaut, is obviously an acute observer. During his training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston he was prescribed Lipitor due to elevated blood cholesterol. Six weeks later while walking in his garden, he did not recognize his wife. He refused to enter his home which had become unfamiliar and was soon examined by a neurologist. The diagnosis? “Transient Global Amnesia”. But doctors at NASA refused to convict Lipitor as the culprit.
A year later Dr. Graveline’s prescription for Lipitor was renewed but reduced by half. Six weeks later he was back in the black pit of amnesia which this time lasted for 12 hours. During this interval he had no recognition of his four children, no memory of medical school days, 10 years spent as a USAF flight surgeon or astronaut. Fortunately this complication does not occur in many patients taking Lipitor or other CLDs. But since this frightening experience Dr Graveline has collected several thousands of cases where CLDs appear to have caused a variety of mental problems.
Why does this happen? One theory is that CLDs pass through the blood brain barrier and interfere with the normal production of cholesterol by glia cells in the brain. This deficiency of cholesterol may interfere with the normal transmission of nervous impulses.
We do know that in rare instances patients taking CLDs develop degeneration of muscle tissue which in turn can result in death from kidney failure. So who knows what effect the long term use of these drugs will have on the mental status of children who start taking CLDs at age eight. In 1580 Montaigni, the French essayist wrote, “How many things that were articles of faith yesterday are fables today?”
The more logical answer to this problem is a massive project to fight childhood obesity and the use of natural ways to prevent cardiovascular disease. I don’t see this happening. Rather I envision a risky reliance on the easy way out by swallowing CLDs and I’d predict that history will show it’s been a huge unprecedented error.
