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This topic is almost too upsetting for me to blog about, but I need to put my opinion out there in the hopes that somehow it might help influence peoples’ thinking on this topic.

As you know if you’ve been anywhere near a mainstream media outlet this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a recommendation that children as young as two be screened for cholesterol and, even more heinous, children as young as eight should be put on cholesterol-lowering drugs.

We need to wake up. Cholesterol is NOT the problem.

Trying to lower cholesterol via prescription drugs, OTOH, is a HUGE problem.

I’ve blogged before about cholesterol. We’ve managed to collectively demonize the stuff: a textbook example of the phenomenon of “mistaken consensus.”

Here’s the reality of the situation. We NEED cholesterol. Our brains need it, our bodies need it. It’s an essential component of dozens of critical cellular structures, such as the myelin sheaths that surround our nerve cells (can’t lay down new neural pathways in the brain without myelin, folks); it’s a component of the bile salts we use to digest fats; it’s a building block of our sex hormones (yes, that’s estrogen, testosterone, & friends).

So why is cholesterol the bad guy? Because it’s also a well-known component of arterial plaque.

But we’ve made a crucial error. We’ve assumed that since plaque is made of cholesterol, lowering cholesterol levels will help prevent heart disease.

Well, I say “we.” People have been questioning the role of cholesterol for years, now. This is from 1987:

In considering 1,400 patients whose blocked arteries were replaced with veins taken from other parts of their bodies, Dr. [Michael E.] DeBakey found again that cholesterol levels did not predict which of these bypass patients would redevelop blockage and require further surgery. He said patients with ”low” cholesterol levels, below 200 micrograms per milliliter of blood, did not fare better as a group than patients with high levels, about 240.

That’s over 20 years ago!

Since then, the thinking has evolved considerably; research now points more toward inflammation than cholesterol levels as the critical risk factor for heart disease. Google “inflammation heart disease” and you find plenty of stuff to mull, much of it along the lines of this bit from Andrew Weil’s website:

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a substance found in blood that is a marker for inflammation in the body. High levels of this protein are associated with an increased risk of heart disease and low levels with a low risk. The notion that inflammation plays a central role in heart disease is relatively new, although we’ve long known that CRP levels go up to signal any type of inflammation . . .

[T]he link between elevated CRP levels and heart disease has been demonstrated repeatedly, and there is some evidence that CRP may be a more important indicator of heart disease risk than high LDL (”bad”) cholesterol. In an eight-year study involving 27,939 women led by Paul Ridker, MD, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, more than half of the women who eventually developed heart disease had high CRP levels even though their LDL levels were not considered high. Dr. Ridker has estimated that the same may be true for 25 percent of the U.S. population. The study results were published in the November 14, 2002, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. More recently, a Cleveland Clinic study found ultrasound evidence that clogged coronary arteries had not gotten worse among 502 patients who were most successful at lowering their CRP levels. The study was published in the Jan. 6, 2005, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

It gets crazier. Courtesy of this piece published by the Weston Price Foundation: cholesterol seems to protect against infection. Since infection causes inflammation (low grade bacterial infection might be the true heart disease culprit), high cholesterol levels might actually PROTECT against heart disease.

Yes, there is a subset of the population for which high levels of so-called “bad” cholesterol is correlated with increased risk of heart disease. But it’s only a small subset. And it doesn’t include kids!

So why would ANYONE even CONSIDER drugging kids to lower their cholesterol levels?

I’m no conspiracy theorist. But I do think the American Academy of Pediatrics has betrayed its role as an advocate for our children. It’s shown itself to be too cozy to the “drugs are the answer” model of health care–and that’s not a positive thing.

Put on your thinking caps, guys, for crying out loud.

We need to feed our kids better. Childhood obesity IS an issue.

But drugging our kids to artificially lower levels of an essential molecule is NOT going to solve the problem.

What is will do, count on it, is put them at risk for a world of hurt. Starting with the known side effects of these drugs. And ending with who-knows-what other horrors. Messed up brain development? Hormonal imbalances during crucial stages of puberty? We just don’t know.

It makes me sick to my stomach . . .

I wouldn’t want anyone to think I reserve all my political disgust for Eliot Spitzer. I don’t. My scorn for NY State politicians is abundantly bi-partisan.

So for your enjoyment, here’s an AP photograph taken by Mark Groll at a recent memorial service for fallen NY State firefighters, which I found on gothamist:

The fellow on the left is New York senate leader Joe Bruno. A Republican. Drawing on political skills he learned as a five-year-old.

Bruno is mad ‘cuz Spitzer’s administration is using some (mildish) dirty tricks to discredit him.

Which is apparently far more important, in Bruno’s childish little world, than showing respect for people who lost their lives trying to save the lives of others.

It speaks volume about what he really thinks about “public service,” doesn’t it.

Spitzer’s no angel, of course, and I’m not sorry to see his fake halo dislodged. But Bruno’s self-righteous anger is a big fat sham as well:

While it’s common for elected officials to dip into their campaign committees for an occasional personal meal or other perk, the filings for Bruno’s three committees suggest that he may never pick up his own tab. In 2006 and the first six months of 2007, the committees have spent more than $92,000 on restaurant and country-club bills for “meetings” or “meals,” not including any expenses that are listed for “fundraising” purposes. Calls to some of the restaurants confirm that Bruno eats there regularly, often with guests. It’s not at all uncommon for multiple meals to be billed for the same day, or for the committee to cover virtually an entire week of dinners (including the weekend), usually in restaurants near the capitol and his home. It is possible that some of these meals are for staff, but one committee has no full-time staff, and it’s the one with $38,000 in restaurant billings alone.

In addition, the committees have spent an astounding $18,225 at the track, including expenses virtually every other day during the 36-day summer season at Saratoga, where horseman Bruno reigns as a local potentate. He also appears to take at least a yearly “fundraising” junket to Florida, where he has spent $55,000 in the last year and a half—far more than he’s ever raised there.

As extraordinary as these totals are, there’s also the $211,381 attributed on the Bruno filings to “Cardmember Services,” an affiliate of the World Perks Visa Card; $55,621 to “Commercial Card Solutions,” an affiliate of J.P. Morgan Chase; and $26,000 to a third credit-card company. These entities, which are cumulatively listed at five addresses on Bruno reports, “consolidate transactions” and “help manage travel and other miscellaneous expenses” for small businesses. In addition, the committees report $36,507 in “unitemized expenses,” often listed by the thousands at the end of a reporting period. The law requires that any expenditure over $50 be specified. Ironically, while two of the committees serve the senate majority, the third—which has spent $4.5 million since 2000—is in business purely to re-elect Bruno himself, in a district where he hasn’t faced a real opponent (and sometimes no Democrat at all) in a decade.

That’s Wayne Barrett reporting in the Village Voice — and he’s only warming up. The article goes on & on for three pages, detailing how Bruno and his associates live fat, abuse their positions, and deliberately obfuscate their activities from anyone who might be critical of them.

Our state’s political class is a joke, and our residents are paying the price. Laughing yet?

Technorati Tags: Eliot Spitzer, Joe Bruno, New York State politics

Working a lot. Golfing some. Plus after a couple years of coasting in my personal life . . . well, let’s just say it’s getting interesting.

I’ll try to get back into my head & blog some more over the next couple of days. We’re supposed to get a ton of rain tomorrow, that should settle me down. And any day now I’ll start to sleep better again. I’ve been waking up early every morning, too wound up to keep myself settled. I’m not complaining, it’s fun in a jittery kind of way :-)

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You’re not going to get anywhere by posting here.

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I’ve been trying to capture audio files to my harddrive through a microphone, using the mic jack in my PC, but I’m picking up tons of static.

Is that an issue with the quality of the mic?

It’s a Radio Shack headset/microphone. I can’t remember what it cost. Under $30.

If I invest in a higher quality mic, would that solve the problem?

I’m using the sound recorder utility that comes with Windows 2000. Are there better sound capture applications that would let me filter the static?

Anybody reading this able to help? Thanks!

For a Friday catblogging photo?

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Doc-t’s on a roll!

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The Telegraph says that it’s sweeping the U.S.

True American Anglophiles are rolling our eyes. Vogue, indeed. Just give me the tee shirt, thanks.

Update: almost forgot — tee shirt and a Boddington’s :-)

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