According to the findings of Dr. Earl S. Ford, less than 1 percent American children aged 12 to 17 need statins. The doctor decided to check the statistics before giving cholesterol lowering drugs to children according to the recommendations of American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics had issued guidelines to doctors urging them to consider cholesterol drugs for more kids, even as young as 8. The kids who had high levels of "bad cholesterol," or LDL, along with other health problems like obesity and high blood pressure should be considered eligible for administering the drugs.

According to Ford, the guidelines did not specify how many children might be affected with the problem.

"I think a lot of people thought large numbers of children were probably going to be put on medications for long periods of time," he said.

Ford who is a medical officer in the U. S. Public Health Service, said that the recommendations caused lot of confusion both for parents and physicians.

So he decided to look into the data. Surprisingly he found that the number of adolescents who should receive the treatment was very small.

According to Cardiologist Dr. William Scott, a pediatrics professor at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, unless a child has a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol, regular exercise and an appropriate diet will help keep cholesterol in check. There is no need to prescribe drugs in such cases.