Quick, someone hit the panic button — American teens are suffering from high cholesterol!
The CDC is breathlessly pushing a new study that shows 20 percent of U.S. teens — including 40 percent of obese kids — have supposedly high cholesterol.
You’ll have to pardon me for not getting excited over this… because I can see it for what it really is: Part of a desperate hustle to get even more people, no matter how young, on the most useless of all meds…cholesterol- lowering statins.
This sick effort to drug children began in 2008, when the American Academy of Pediatrics began demanding more aggressive cholesterol testing in children…and even made the outrageous recommendation that kids as young as 8 years old get statins for high cholesterol.
Pretty soon, they’ll start loading baby bottles with statins — mix ’em right in with those soy-based formulas, just to make sure Junior gets hooked from day one.
Welcome to the world, kid. I hope you’ve got insurance.
But if your pediatrician is pushing statins on your child, shame on him. And if you let him — then shame on you. These drugs are dangerous enough for adults, but no one knows what horrors they could unleash on a child — because it’s never been studied!
Here’s the real diagnosis: Statins are meds you need to take forever. Get a kid hooked at 8, and you’ve got a paying customer for 60, 70 or 80 years of refills.
KA-CHING!
Kids today are unhealthier than ever, but the problem here isn’t rising teen cholesterol — on its own, it’s a worthless measurement. No, the real issue is bulging teen bellies, and I’m not just referring to all the pregnant schoolgirls (although there’s plenty wrong with that, too).
The same CDC survey found that one-third of adolescents are now overweight or obese. Forget cholesterol — someone needs to get these kids off the sugar, and fast. But I wouldn’t bet my bacon on that happening any time soon, not when most U.S. schools have replaced the three Rs with the three Cs: Candy, Cake and Cola.
Ditch the sugar and the rest of the carbs, and your kid will be fine. Do the same for yourself — and don’t waste another moment worrying about cholesterol levels.