Teens and cholesterol
In my pediatric practice we routinely screen teenagers (typically ages 12-18 or so) for total cholesterol /HDL/LDL and triglycerides. I usually tell myself it’s to check for FH and if the cholesterol is not over 300 we usually ignore and recommend follow up when they see an adult doctor. Which tests at that age should we be sending? Are there any recommendations about treatment at this age? Should an elevated cholesterol be referred in a healthy teen? Or only with a significant family history? Any role for LP(a) or APO B evaluation at this age? Thanks.
Vitamin E to improve liver numbers?
Hi Peter and team You are quite vocal about getting ALT and AST well below the top of the reference ranges. A quick glance at the literature suggests that vitamin e does this, as well as decreases fibrosis. Any thoughts on these studies or the effectiveness of Vitamin E for combatting NAFLD or improving liver function in general?
Guest Suggestion: General Immune system and Inflammatory Markers
The immune system has so many different inflammatory compounds and I'd love to have an immunology guest who can elucidate the different pathways, compounds, and and reasons we release some of these. As this is broad, it might be helpful to go over the course of a week such as increase in response to poor sleep or exercise or pollens, etc.. It would also be great to understand which of these same markers might actually be helping our health when in the right dose (as eustressors). In other words- are histamines, leukotrienes, PG-2s, IL6, CRP, C-3, C-4 and others always a bad thing in the body.