Cholesterol is making inroads in kindergartens on piles of pizza and burgers, and children as young as 10 are taking statin drugs along with their vitamins to stay healthy. Poor diet and lack of exercise are the same factors behind rising childhood obesity, and can lead to health problems later in life, notably heart disease, doctors said.

“Cardiovascular disease can start at childhood and there’s a need for primary prevention during childhood,” said Dr. Gautam Singh, runs one of the few preventive heart programs for children at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

“We have found in our experience, as opposed to adults, that if children lose just 5 to 10 percent of their body weight, there can be a 15 to 20 percent reduction in their bad cholesterol. We see it all the time.”

[Read](http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2006-06-02T202909Z_01_N17244362_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIZFEATURE-CHOLESTEROL-KIDS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22) (Reuters)

I’ve been amazed at how little exercise my kids get at school. Whatever happened to daily phys. ed. classes?