Do You Know Your Child’s Cholesterol Levels?
When Wendy Dean suffered a heart attack, her personal health was not her only concern. Because she was only 35-years-old, she had good reason to worry about her two young daughters.So one year later, she decided to have the girls’ cholesterol levels tested.
“I took them because they were high risk,” said Dean, who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. “I wondered about their cholesterol immediately.”
The results justified Dean’s concern: Her daughter Becca, who was 10, had a total cholesterol level of 213 mg/dL. Her other daughter, Sarah, 7, had a total cholesterol level of 187 mg/dL.
According to the American Heart Association’s Web site, the acceptable total cholesterol level for children ages 2 to 19 is 170 mg/dL or lower.
Parents don’t generally worry about their young children having heart attacks, but high cholesterol in children is actually very common. And if kids with high cholesterol do not change their lifestyles, they could be at risk for a host of problems later in life.
Tags: Becca Dean, childhood obesity, children, cholesterol, Cincinnati, Dr. Paula Urbina, HDL, LDL, Ohio, Preventive Cardiology at Cincinnati Children’s Medica, Sarah Dean, triglycerides, Wendy Dean
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A lot of people with high cholestoral blame it on their family history, which is a lame excuse for adopting the same bad diet as their mother and father.
Dear Friends,
No matter what the label cholesterol will not be a killer. It is a fabrication to sell medicine. The true killer is sodium which causes or contributes to arterialsclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and that is what kills. Table salt has contributed more to American deaths than any other substance. You don’t need to worry about your cholesterol level. It will fluctuate.
But there is a facet of family history that has nothing to do with diet and can put you at risk: If a parent has suffered a heart attack at an early age (as my mother did), he/she and any children should be checked for another risk factor called LP (a) or “LP little a.” It is an inherited risk factor that makes even moderate levels of the “bad” cholestoral dangerous. You have it or you don’t – there is no food you can eat or avoid eating that will lower this risk factor. I have it in spades and need to watch my diet religiously, as well as use medication. Also, regular cholestoral tests do not include a test for LP (a); you have to ask for it separately.