Cholesterol test now recommended for kids 9 to 11

The face of cholesterol testing just got a lot younger.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently revised guidelines for annual well-child visits, adding a recommendation that all children between the ages of 9 and 11 get a dyslipidemiascreen, which calculates total cholesterol, including high-density lipoprotein ("good" cholesterol, aka HDL), low-density lipoprotein ("bad" cholesterol, aka LDL or non-HDL) and triglycerides in the blood.

It's the result of a 2012 report from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which urged the universal childhood test based on evidence that elevated triglycerides and LDL raise the risk of later cardiovascular disease, which afflicts at least 40 percent of the U.S. population. It cited evidence that early intervention can substantially reduce that risk.  http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sc-health-0312-cholesterol-kids-20140312,0,7375649.story