Lipitor for kids?

July 7th, 2008 at 04:36pm Jim Vail 541

Just today, I heard somewhere on one of the news channels that doctors are advocating that kids as young as 7 start taking cholesterol-reducing meds and that parents should start getting their kid's cholesterol levels checked by the age of 2!

I took care of my disabled mom during the last 10 years of her life. Her main problems were arthritis and heart disease. While doing my duty as a caretaker, I did a lot of research on how to help her. I found the "Life Extension Foundation" to be my most valuable resource on different nutritional remedies and the latest research on various illnesses and/or longevity. I/we were using things like shark cartilage, melatonin and glucosamine long before the general public even knew such things existed.

Having said all of the above as a bit of background, I can get closer to the point of some of the things that have literally driven me nuts for years. 

The medical community in this country (including the AMA and other organizations) still primarily teach their doctors that they should treat with drugs OR schedule surgery to fix patients problems. Any doctor who strays from this philosophy risks at least scorn from other doctors if not having to fight to keep their license. This includes doctors who advocate nutritional routes to healing.

Sometime in the past 30 years or so, some medical person started bad-mouthing cholesterol as a VERY BAD thing that must be controlled in people. It just so happens that cholesterol, itself, is a nutrient - one could conceivably die without it.

As early as 1981, there were studies that have proved conclusively that cholesterol levels are NOT reliable or even accurate as risk indicators of heart disease. There have been many more accomplished since then with the same result. The Life Extension Foundation conducted some of these and I have seen the results myself. There is no valid scientific reason for prescribing cholesterol-reducing drugs to anyone except maybe in rare, specific cases.

Why then do sales of "Zocor", "Pravachol", "Lipitor" (just to name a few) run into scores of BILLIONS of dollars every year for the past 10 years or more? Now they want to prescribe to children, too? What about the side effects? They will tell you in ads that people with liver disease cannot take the drug; a "...simple test will tell you if you have liver damage..." What's not stated is that this whole class of drugs CAN CAUSE liver disease in an otherwise healthy liver after the drug has been taken for even a little while. What a damned waste!

Which brings me to another of the irksome things that bother me. It has been at least a whole generation since it has been illegal to advertise on TV such things as cigarettes and alcohol for "...the public good..." Yet apparently it is perfectly alright to blast the message to people to "...go bug your doctor and see if you can get him/her to prescribe our drug. You REALLY should!" That is the message put out more and more by various drug companies these days. If any of the people really NEEDED any drugs, the doctor should prescribe them without any advocacy from the patient, you think? 

Entry Filed under: Health, Aspen, Colorado, Family, Women, Aspen Life Post, United Post