A major medical controversy is brewing over whether children, age 8 or younger, should be placed on medications to lower their cholesterol.

The reason for this controversy? Heart disease, heart attacks and strokes are now appearing in children in their teens and early twenties. Until now, these diseases that didn’t appear until people were in their forties or older.

So what has changed? Myles Abbott, MD, member of the American Academy of Pediatrics board, asked recently, “We have a tremendous epidemic of obesity (in children), and a lot of these kids now have type 2 diabetes. What is the best way to manage them?”

The underlying problem? Obesity is increasing at an alarming rate in young children, double the rate in the 1960's, more than three times higher than in the 1990's, and even higher in some ethnic groups.