Putting Cholesterol Control on a Diet

Abstract

To the Editor.— In the July 7 issue Dr Palumbo 1 editorializes on the cost for screening and treatment of cholesterol levels in the entire population. Careful observers of the letters sections of several journals will have noted a thin stream of protests from various parts of the country, over the last several years, regarding the numbing costs of the great cholesterol public health initiative, if applied as recommended by the National Cholesterol Education Program. It seems that at last some of those considerations have come to the attention of mainstream academia. I only regret that such considerations have followed, rather than preceded, the publication of the National Cholesterol Education Program, which may produce the largest collection of malpractice litigation ever seen in this country if the courts come to agree that failure to apply the explicit algorithms and recommendations constitutes negligence. The fact that the program contains a disclaimer