New report to update guidelines for treating high cholesterol in children

A prescription to buy Lipitor is widely regarded as one of the best ways to help adults bring their cholesterol levels down, but are children also at risk for needing the medications?

A new report to be presented at the American Heart Association conference says yes. A team of researchers from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute will recommend that more young people with risk factors for heart disease be screened by their pediatricians for high cholesterol, according to the Associated Press.

Previous guidelines have only advised testing children who have a family history of high cholesterol and other risk factors, like obesity. However, more recent research suggest that anywhere from 10 to 13 percent of young people have unhealthy cholesterol levels, regardless of other risk factors.

For these reasons, the researchers told the news source that more aggressive measures need to be taken. While they would not divulge any details of the new recommendations ahead of the conference, they said there would likely be an update to the age at which it is consider safe to give a young person a prescription to buy Lipitor.

High cholesterol is one of the main contributors to heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.