age

I'm taking my 16 year old son to the Doctor in the morning, to have a set of fasting blood tests. I want to make sure he doesn't have familial hypercholesterolemia like me. Does anyone know the minimum age you can take statins if he does have my particular problem?

[ed34]

got to wait a  week for test result but his BP is good, 118/74

That's with nerves too, so he definitely doesn't take after me with high BP :)

[ChatterAlly]

Not sure about the age, but I know the diseases do run in my family.  I was told I had familial hypercholesterolemia, but my brother was told he has hypertriglyceridemia.  How do I know for sure which is which?  We both have extremely high Trigs. And high cholesterols.

[curmudgen]

At 16 I would do diet management first...exercise, smaller food portions.  Too many people use statin therapy as an excuse to not follow a good healthy diet and exercise program.  Statins forever at 16?   only if genetic and health program doesn't work. IMHO.

[ed34]

My Son is a fitness fanatic and reads all ingredient labels (yes at 16). Shopping with him around is a nightmare. I'm just worried he may carry my genes for hypercholesterolemia and diet won't touch that. He is currently 1.72 metres tall and weighs 58.8kg which I believe is around 129 pounds, just over 9 stone. He has never smoked and promises me he never will, but I suppose all kids say that lol.

[ChatterAlly]

This is off the base here, ED, but did you ever smoke?  The reason I ask, is I want to know if this factor is a greater risk than the familial thing.

[ed34]

I think one probably assists the other. Smoking causes high blood pressure and it also contains chemicals that inflame arteries. This is the starting point for the problems. Then of course there's the abundance of cholesterol in our arteries as an added bonus.
I still find it very odd how my grandparents all lived to be over 90, and yet they started smoking unfiltered cigarettes at the age of around 14. Maybe they put different chemicals in them now.