CHICAGO (AP) - Doctors are recommending that every child be tested for high cholesterol by around age 10 to prevent heart
disease later in life.
The advice is in new guidelines from an expert panel appointed
by the federal government. These experts say that current testing
of children with a family history of heart disease is missing too
many kids, and more are at risk because of the rising obesity
epidemic.
Doctors say that children should be tested before puberty
because cholesterol dips during that time of hormone change and
rises later.
The guidelines were released Friday by the journal Pediatrics.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)