Your View

Why is it that as soon as there is some sort of article dealing with cholesterol or blood pressure, that people automatically resort to blaming parents and fast food joints?

Here's a quick and believable explanation for the increase in young people taking these meds (although I am in no way saying that this accounts for all the people taking meds).

I am 25 and have been on cholesterol meds on and off for 3 years. My brother is 21 and has been on them too. My sister is 19 and has taken blood pressure meds. None of us are overweight (well, I am 6 pounds heavier than I should be according to my doctor :) - but that hardly classifies me as overweight) and I can't stand the way eating fast food makes me feel afterwards.

REASONS: My dad's side of the family has heart disease running through their veins. My grandfather died of a heart attack when I was 3. My father died of a heart attack when I was 9. My uncle had a heart attack (lived through it) when I was 16.

My mother's family has a history of high blood pressure.

Combine these factors and my doctor is convinced that these meds will somewhat soften the effects that these hereditary diseases will have on my brother, sister and myself.

And trust me, my doctor only prescribed these medications after we exhausted all other options.

So before all you judgemental and critical ADULTS out there jump to your conclusions about parents and fast food joints ---- THINK!

There is no excuse for feeding your kids crap. Period. I don't care how "busy" you are.

Myself and my spouse both work full-time, I have a son, he has two kids. Throw two dogs into the mix, elderly parents, maintaining a home, and chauffeuring everybody everywhere.

Maybe once a week, we have a treat... pizza, burgers. Otherwise, we COOK. Yes, that means every meal has a lean meat, vegetables, and a starch (ususally whole grain).

There's fruit and yogurt, milk and juice in the fridge, and whole grain crackers and chips in the cupboard. Even the "instant" food that we keep on hand for quickie meals is relatively healthy; fish fillets in whole grain breading, boneless skinless chicken breast for baking or salads, veggie pizza with whole grain herbed crust, etc.

Every day the dogs are walked, and once a week the family takes them on a very long walk. The kids are active in soccer and martial arts. Are there nights that we flop on the couch and eat chips? Sure. Is it every night? Absolutely not.

EVERYBODY in my family is a healthy weight with no health problems. The only exception is my spouse who unfortuantely inherited blood-pressure issues. But with his med, he's a perfect 120/80 all the time.

It takes my spouse and I an hour every evening to prepare a decent dinner so we often eat late (around 7:00). If the kids are hungry before then, they can have fruit or cheese & crackers. As for school lunches, same thing goes. Yogurt, fruit, sandwiches on whole grain bread, leftover dinner from the night before, and once a week money to go to Horton's for a 12-grain bagel with cream cheese.

If I have time to feed my family in a health manner, everybody has time. I have no patience for people who microwave garbage and call it dinner. Or call the nearest takeout for trans fat a la carte.

zen from Edmonton writes

"i must admit that i only got to the end of the 2nd paragraph of this article, and shook my head when it mentioned that doctors "are getting more aggressive with preventive treatments."

Yes they are. I am 37 and know I am overweight but not "obese". Bit of a belly if you must know. I went to the doctor for other issues and was chewed out for virtually the entire time about my cholesterol level, weight, etc.

I got really mad though when he pulled out the handy dandy plastic covered chart from the drug company making a lot of the hcolesterol meds and checked my BMI (a notoriously bad scale) and cholesterol to determine I should be on the drugs.

Sorry, any credibility was flushed at that point. Come on. You look at the chart by the drug company? Bias anyone?

It is a big industry (legal drugs) and anyone who thinks that they are not pressuring use... think again.

Me? I would rather work on losing weight, exercising and eating healthy rather than pop a pill which has some REALLY bad side effects.

And if I fail to pull it off? At least I won't have to worry about a long retirement.

Are you serious? This is actually surprising people?

1. The North American world is so "advanced" that wholesome whole foods are no longer consumed by the average person. Even where available they cost more than processed foods or chemically treated ones.

2. North American people in general are so consumed with work and "ambition" that they loose a healthy appreciation for outdoor activity and "playtime" in the rat race.

3. As generation after generation go by such changes in lifestyle become reflected in genetics and kids start off with an obese physique and lazy yet "ambitious" disposition.

Wake up people. Health care advances mean an unnatural population growth rate, which means high density living and "easy" alternatives to save time and cater to the masses.

Almost everything we spend our energy on is aimed at finding short cuts and saving time, it's not how we were designed to live. We all know shortcuts end up being the wrong option, and now we're surprised at the consequences?

of course lack of exercise, fast food, convenience meals are a big part of the current problem.

i think, however, there has also been a significant change in the processing and content of so called "healthy foods". my parents, aunts and uncles ate horrible meals (eat???)

lots of pork with gravy, roast beef, hamburger et.al. they also drink beer and 2 of them smoke. exercise is a non-item (except golf, and when using a cart i would doubt much health benefit. whatever.

they are all still alive, mentally active, and happy as heck.

so what is causing unhealthy fats in 12 to 20 year olds.

also, i am finding that to eat all those fresh fruits and vegetables as well as fish and lean meat daily is damned expensive, if you can get them in the off season.

i must admit that i only got to the end of the 2nd paragraph of this article, and shook my head when it mentioned that doctors "are getting more aggressive with preventive treatments."

preventative treatment, to me, means altering one's lifestyle through diet and exercise....not taking a 'magic pill' that will make the SYMPTOMS remain under control.

i was diagnosed with crohn's disease as a young man, and the medical community filled me full of drugs to 'cure me' and wanted to remove 1/3 of my intestine and bowel to 'cure me'.

i refused the surgery and since the drugs gave me side effects that left me house bound for 6 months, i turned to changing my lifestyle - diet overhaul and healthy active living.

my doctor would not condone me not taking my 'medicine' any longer, but shook her head in amazement that i was able to do to the disease what the medication couldn't.

pharmaceuticals are big big big business. i question the decisions behind the grossly over prescribed medication on our continent - are the decisions for health reasons or profit driven? i sense it's more often the latter.

Joe of Halifax, I think the difference between years ago and now was fresh air and being outside.

Not many people paid for sports.

We made it up as we went.Everyone was included,no one was excluded.

How many kids do that nowadays?

Not only the kids fault but the parents mainly.

How many kids do you actually see outside? We were never inside, always outside.

That is one of the biggest differences and plain old fashioned WORK.

I am not talking about sitting on your ass all day but actual physical manual labour.

allan.
Very good observations, as usual. I wonder at one of your points though. You seem to be suggesting that the only people who are, or should be allowed to "throw critical darts" would be those with "all the will power in the world".

Perhaps its just sarcastic cynicism, but I prefer to think that the more open the discussion, the better. I think that whether a person has all the will power, or not a single iota of it, they should be able to speak about and hear about the truths, such as those you've pointed out.
If we simply excuse people from the discussion because they've fallen prey to the commercialism of it all, then we simply accept the defeat of a very significant portion of society.

I know I wish I could be that salad eating, exercising machine with 6 pack abs, buns of steel and the heart of a race horse, but alas there are probably a few too many cheesburgers, pizzas and beers in my background. The more I hear about things like trans fats though, the less likely I am to consume them.

I guess that should be the message, in my opinion.

Charlene Smith,

Nice judgement call (yes, I'm being sarcastic). You feel those who claim to not have time to cook are lazy? I would state very much the problem isn't laziness but time management. Not all these folks are lazy (some actually, you know, work for a living and put in long hours and work very hard - hardly lazy), they just have poor time management skills.

And I would love to have a little garden of sorts, but if I tried to put one up on the fire escape in my building (I don't have a balcony), I'd get the boot for it. :)

Okay, joking aside, I do think it's a matter of time management or lack thereof, as opposed to laziness and not everyone has the inclination to grow their own food, but hell, most fruit/vegetable markets and grocery stores are full of fresh produce and it really doesn't take that long to cook a healthy meal (and it's cheaper too).

The key is planning ahead, making time and doing something enjoyable, not a matter of how lazy someone is.

So there I was in the fast-food line-up, ordering a milk for a grandkid. The fast-food place (Scottish ancestry) gives me a "special" straw, and tells me it will make the milk taste like "honeycomb" when said kid sucks milk through it.

I can't help but think this is part of a conspiracy to make kids think even milk has to be sugared up, along with the buns and ketchup.

Meanwhile, kids are more sedentary and fatter than they've ever been before. Even in China!

The solution is to aggressively challenge the fast-food-fries-and burgers businesses the very same way tobacco-cigarette producers were called to account over the past 20 years.

Get the facts out in the open.
Get the kids off the couch.
Get real food on the table.
Youthful bad health is mostly preventable.

Why would anyone be surprised by these findings?

I think something like two out of every three meals on average in North America is now prepared outside the home.

Most of it is prepared in an assembling line model, better suited for cars where faster beats better hands down.

We still have trouble ensuring manufacturers actually put labels on their products that tell us in simple and honest terms what the ingredients are.

Trans-fats are the best example of this. A great product to enhance flavours and speed up the cooking process and, not surprisingly a boon for drug manufacturers.

But oh, to be someone with all the willpower in the world so that we can sit back and throw critical darts at those who, after a childhood lifetime of being inundated with around the clock commerical messages, fall prey to the come-on.

Of course, society is never to blame and the self-righteous critcs, although usually cheaper and with far less taste than a greasy Big Mac, are always more than willing to tell you so.

I think the message is: it's ok to produce and sell the crap regardless if it's killing people, but just don't eat it.

I'm curious about the whole intergenerational diet issue. Of course there are a lot more fast food options around today than in previous decades but has anyone ever looked at some of the popular 1960's dishes for example? Not exactly health food either.

Yes they were likely better I would hazard a guess, than Big Macs but overall, people smoked and drank and lot more, ate a lot of red meats, starches and creams in comparison and lower amounts of a variety of fruit, seafood and so on.

Even vitamins were not taken as often and were not of as high quality as today and working out in a gym in the 1960’s for example was for an extreme minority of pretty much only the male population.

So if you believe the hype, so to speak, the average person who was 30 in 1965 should never have lived beyond the 1970-80’s. Am I missing some sort of secret pill that led these previous generations to more overall health, do the stats just not exist on the topic or did they in fact experience massive die offs after dinners of mashed potatoes and fried chicken with gravy while enjoying that evening brandy and cigarette?

Did previous generations some how master the French ability to consume copious amounts of cheese and wine with no ill effects?

Large Man.
I'm afraid you've misinterpreted my remarks.
I not only respect your rights, but would defend them with all my strength - and have, in fact.

Point is this. I used to be one of those smokers you see in crowds outside of building during break time. It was, and is my right. Nobody forced me to quit. I did that because I hated the stench and was having trouble climbing 6 flights of stairs. I realized it was time.

If you're happy dieing of congenital heart failure with a big mac in your hand, I'm fine with that. But as a society, don't you think we should at least try to be reasonably healthy?

Don't you feel like our kids deserve better than to be seduced by the Hamburgler and live the life of eating heart attack in a a sack?

Ok honestly people... I would take a long hard look at this and really think to yourself. Are that many young people taking these meds?

Because I'll tell you right now I don't know of ANYONE my age who is. I don't know of any of my friends friends who are taking these meds. I don't know any of my step sisters friends taking these.

From what I see with my generation (and you'll excuse me if I think I can speak a little better of it than some 50+ year old doctors) we are much more knowledgeable about healthy eating and diet. I don't have any friends my age who eat fast-food like McDonalds anymore than once a month.

I think people are being a little quick to jump into the doom and gloom scenario instead of actually taking a step back and ASKING my generation what's really going on.

Large Man has a valid point, based on where he resides and my knowledge of the superb Deluxe fish and chips and Greco donairs in that city.

However, most Canadians do not have that excuse of vastly superior fast food.

K Trudeau:
I am one of those individuals you are singling out who 'heads into fast food joints' and consider myself overweight.

I am NOT, however, a burden to the health care system. I may outlive you if you have a heart attack riding your bike or running the treadmill.

You will NEVER force me to eat better and exercise more. It's a free country.

Well, at least these studies should be good news for those who believe that world population pressures will be the end of civilization. I mean hey, after the North American lifestyle is continuously exported to enough places we can look forward to increased rates of new diseases replacing old ones and so on.

Maybe B. Ray is right about child bearing licenses as well and heck if you don’t want to abide by the new rules the government will send goons right to your door to drag you out and enforce the breeding laws.

It’s a perfectly reasonable solution to this reprehensible trend of high cholesterol probably due to immoral Doritos eating and illicit video games after all.

K, as someone who does have low good cholesterol, you should look into it.

I do have heart disease [born with it due to a rare disease], they believe I inherited the problem with my good cholesterol being too low.

Years ago I was told I was at an increased risk of heart attack because of this.

It is the bad cholesterol numbers people are concerned about but the good one too low can prove just as deadly.

What did we expect? Junior sits on his backside watching TV or playing video games, eating either junk or processed food, whil mom and dad go about 'their busy and hectic' lives.

'No time' to get the kids involved in activities - let 'em watch TV or play videos.

'No time' to prepare a home cooked meal - give 'em something prepared or frozen. Hell, let 'em eat a bag of chips!

'No time' to sit down for dinner - let 'em fend for themselves.

When will our society learn that there is nothing more important than our children - our future?

We legislate and license every stupid and useless thing on earth, but we still have no pre-requirements to have children.

No need to show maturity, financial ability, physical ability, mental ability. Simply 'go forth and multiply'. What a crock!

And we're surprised about these findings?

I agree with Charlene, gardens are great sources of food.

With all the recent reports of companies sourcing more ingredients overseas, along with the lack of 'knowledgable' food labels, its one way of being sure where your food is grown.

I hope the government will introduce legislation requiring labels to list where all the ingredients where sourced, so consumers are able to make an informed choice. Particularly for those who are not able to or want to have a garden.

Is this doctor for real? Or does he have financial interets in certain pharmaceutical companies....what an idiot.

That's all I have to say as I suspect most others feel the same way.

He's only confirming what health nuts have been saying for years...that the medical community would rather us take more drugs and pay them more money than take simple steps to living healhier lives so that we never have to see them.

Heather, this is not a matter of education, or lack thereof, I was commenting on the material contained in the article. It referred to an American study on American people by the American Heart Foundation.

This does not preclude the fact these findings might be applied to other nations, however that leap is beyond the scope of the article being commented on.

Nonetheless, I can recommend to you that your concerns can be alleviated by a combination of improving your diet plus daily exercise.

Simply changing your diet alone is not sufficent, you also need to exercise more to reduce health risk factors, concerns as outlined in this American study of Americans.

As someone in that 20 - 44 range (never mind where in the range) I find this a little frightening. It rings true with me that there are quite a few people I know who are taking meds related to cholesterol.

For my part I quit smoking a year ago - really hard, but what a relief! I rarely ever eat anything deep fried.

I see the inside of a Mc'D's or BK or DQ maybe once every three or four months. I walk at least 3 km every day, plus bicycle when I can and hit the gym from time to time.

Despite all of this my last doctor told me that my good cholesterol was a little low and said I needed to either get the meds for it or drink more tea and exercise more.

(That doctor has since gone elsewhere and so now I don't have one - can't seem to get one either - guess I'll die not knowing the cause).

I can't imagine what those seriously over weight people who I see hearding into the fast food joints are doing, but I can't help but think that either major lifestyle changes are going to happen, or the average life expectancy will decrease, not to mention the additional cost to the health system.

We seem to be on a very good track with smoking in our society, but it took years of creating the stigma, educating youth, and a series of tough anti-smoking laws to get it going.

How do we force people to eat better and exercise more?

Are these American statistics?? What are the numbers for Canada?? Personally i'm not interested in U.S obesity as they have had this problem for many many years.

Canadian health issues are what concern me, being a Canadian.

It all comes down to making sensible choices and moderation.

re: Roch
Winnipeg

"hmmm... this is VERY interestng.

An increase in cholesterol and blood pressure drugs, eh? In America, no less! VERY interesting.

I would like to see a cross reference to the increase in these drugs to cheeseburger and french fry consumption, to determine if there might be a coorelation of some sort...

It's just speculation on my part, but this potentially could be related to America's well known status as the fattest people in the world... "

Are you actually so uneducated in this subject you believe it's confined only to the U.S.? The problem is as bad here. We just don't want to do anything about it other than take vending machines out of schools.

I agree with Victor that people who claim they are too busy to cook healthy meals are LAZY.

I heard that excuse from too many people.

I have been showing a group of women how easy it is to cook, simply, easily and healthily.

Anyone ever thought of planning ahead?

What about getting the kids involved?

Kids actually LIKE to eat what they help to grow,eat and cook.

It raises their self esteem because they can master doing a life skill,planning and cooking.

My bunch have always grown leaf lettuce from the time they can sow a seed.They think it makes the greatest salad in the world because THEY grew it.

I don't believe anyone is ever to young to learn about foods.

Is there any surprise that the incidence of obesity in younger people is rising at the same time as the use of computers by young people?

I await the day that some company comes out with the “self-powered computer centre”. This would be a computer network station connected to a tredmill or stationary bicycle. You exercise for one hour and you build up the battery charge to run your system for one hour.

People could work in pairs with one person on the tredmill or bicycle and the other on the keyboard, switching positions periodically.

Green power, healthier populace, fewer obesity and lack of fitness medical problems.

A win, win, win situation!

No wonder! Parents give in to their children's every junk food whim instead of providing healthy home-cooked meals. Those parents who claim they work all day and don't have time at night are just providing themselves a lame excuse.

Try LEARNING how to cook 15 minute healthy meals - the Internet can provide volumes of quick, delicious, healthy meals that can be put together in no time. Quicker than getting in the car, driving to MacDonalds and waiting for a couple of Big Macs and large fries! Plan your week ahead.

Then we have the irresponsible School Boards who have dropped daily physical education programs from their curriculum. At lunch time their cafeterias provide kids with high-calorie pizza, hot-dogs, hamburgers, sugar filled soft drinks, potato chips, chocolate bars, and every other form of fatty, sugar enriched junk available.

It's high time parents start to take responsiblility to teach their kids (and themselves) how eat proper, healthy meals and exercise daily. They also must demand that the shool systems reintroduce daily physical education programs, get rid of the pop and candy bar machines, and provide healthy, nutritious alternatives to the garbage they sell our kids at lunch today.

It's up to all of us Parents to provide the leadership and action needed to help stem an increasing diabetes, high-blood pressure epidemic among our out-of-shape, overweight children.

This isn't news at all! Governments knew and expected cholesterol levels to rise long ago!

Food industry operates as it pleases, with a bare minimum inspections to help create jobs and tax revenues for the governments.

Alan Rock, at the time, Federal Liberal Minister of Health, in his wisdom, "contrived"
food labeling as a solution to absolve governments from accountability, downloading that responsibility, for better or worse, to the consumer.

One wonders why the taxpayers are paying governments. Who are they, really, protecting?

This is true for most other businesses. No wonder we have budget surpluses every year!

According to government's' global philosophy, we live in a knowledge based economy. If you know you may live, if you don't you may not!

"This is good news, that more people in this
age range are taking these medicines," - Did I
read this right?

I would be more interested in knowing what is causing high cholesterol. I've read that 2/3 of cholesterol does not come from the food
we eat, but is produced by the body. So to reduce this shouldn't we look at how the body produces cholesterol?

Cholesterol is produce by the liver. High insulin levels stimulate the liver to produce cholesterol. Our bodies produce insulin to control blood sugars. So it would make sense to me to lower/stabilize blood sugar levels by reducing refined carbohydrates and simple sugars. This could also explain why we are seeing high cholesterol in todays youth, which are consuming so much more processed
food these days.

We see 'modified corn starch'
in almost every processed food today, largely because it is a cheap 'filler' because of the huge subsidies given by the U.S. government.

I would much prefer to find the 'root causes' of the high cholesterol then just put kids on drugs. But the pharmacutical companies would not make as much money.

Has anyone ever thought if people got off this food fixation kick, everyone would be more healthier??

Not too long ago the big news was anorexia and bullemia.

From starving to bingeing.

There is no balance to anything in our society anymore.

You can also be overweight by eating healthy foods too.

What we need to do is eat healtier but balance it by being more active.

Maybe if society spent as much time teaching people to like themselves and accept themselves,we wouldn't have these types of problems in the first place.

Isn't this the time where we all get together and blame McDonald's and Burger King and Snickers chocolate bars and French Fries and anything else we can think of? Isn't this the time where we call it a "social problem" and dedicate mass amounts of my money on it, despite not being part of the issue?

I think in times like this, the problem is VERY simple. Individuals inability to control themselves.

Whoa, look at that, I didn't blame the corporations or the advertising or anything like that, I blamed the consumer. Heaven forbid I ever do that. Heaven forbid I encourage responsibility versus tossing money and compassionate at it with my hugs, kisses, and best wishes.

It's funny. One thing western society seems to be lacking, well, one of a few things, is discipline. The inability to say "no" and stick to it. I always find there are a million excuses and the one true issue is the individual - not the companies, not the food itself, it's the individual eating mass amounts of it.

Yes, companies have SOME responsibility but I really don't think that negates the individuals responsibility. Their responsibility ends at "this is high in fat" and yours begins with "Oh, ok, well, I'm slightly overweight so I shouldn't eat this."

How much did that cost? NOTHING.

I'm 26, I don't know any of my friends who are taking these meds.

hmmm... this is VERY interestng.

An increase in cholesterol and blood pressure drugs, eh? In America, no less! VERY interesting.

I would like to see a cross reference to the increase in these drugs to cheeseburger and french fry consumption, to determine if there might be a coorelation of some sort...

It's just speculation on my part, but this potentially could be related to America's well known status as the fattest people in the world...

This is not a good development regardless of the opinion of a medical practioner who feels that these people are being proactive. Better for them to set a goal of removing themselves from the medication by reducing the risk factors associated with their conditions, usually weight loss.

I'm confident many young people will not change their lifestyle habits and are relying on modern technology to fix their problems while they go on contributing significantly to the problem, expecting the medication to do what they won't.

Me, I'm 51 and diabetic and overweight. Finally for whatever reason, maybe the fear of having to eventually go to insulin, I'm losing the weight necessary to remove myself from medication. That means a loss of over 60 pounds (though most people are amazed that I'm 255 always remarking that I don't look that heavy) and I'm doing it by changing my eating habits, reducing portions and lots of exercise which for me is walking.

I've started with 2.5 kms a day but am finding that it's not enough so I'll be moving up to 4 kms very shortly.

So, for these legions of young people, they should prepare to take charge and/or responsibility for their health and get moving.

Converts are scary and I'm one of those who has "seen the light", but it's the only realistic approach and I'm fortunate that I still have the physical ability to see this commmitment to being under 200 by 1 July 2008 and thereby saving myself the money and inconvenience of having to take medications for conditions that are within my control.