A West Virginia doctor, William Neal, is recommending that almost all children should have their cholesterol levels tested, according to NPR. The test is currently only conducted for children who have a family history of early heart disease. But Neal found that, when all children were tested, many more children had problems than had bad family histories, and those problems would have been missed.
Early detection and treatment of problems would curb more expensive problems later, but I question whether this is necessary. I am also concerned with Neal's suggestion that kids with high cholesterol could be candidates for medication. Just like medication for depression and serious behavioral disorders, cholesterol medication hasn't been tested in children.
And there's a more straightforward way to prevent children from having cholesterol problems and to keep those problems in-line if they arise. We know unhealthy lifestyles help cause bad cholesterol, and Americans suffer from a society-wide condition of poor diets and lack of exercise, and our children are not exempt. Hence, Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign, and the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act. It's not that those children shouldn't necessarily be tested, but we already know how to prevent and treat high cholesterol, and we already know that we're not doing it.
-- Monica Potts
