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Maintaining low cholesterol levels from young age helps lower risk of heart disease: Study
There are several causes of heart diseases, like high blood pressure and cigarette smoking, but the primary risk factor of high cholesterol is one that many people tend to look at only much later in life.
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To lower cholesterol levels, doctors might prescribe medications or suggest a healthy diet plan. (Shutterstock/-)
H
eart disease is the number one cause of death for men and women worldwide, annually claiming more than 610,000 lives in the United States alone.
There are several causes of heart diseases, like high blood pressure and cigarette smoking, but the primary risk factor of high cholesterol is one that many people tend to look at only later in life.
A study published by The Lancet on Dec. 3 shows that high blood levels of non-HDL cholesterol (the difference between total and HDL "good" cholesterol) in early adulthood may lead to a bigger risk of developing cardiovascular issues, including stroke and heart disease.
According to Time, in conducting the study, researchers used data from 400,000 people from 19 countries, who were free of cardiovascular disease. One-third of the participants were aged under 45. The participants’ cholesterol levels, medical histories, lifestyle and demographics were noted at the start of the study. When followed up 43 years later, 55,000 of the participants had developed heart disease or suffered strokes.
Read also: An avocado a day could keep bad cholesterol away, suggests new study
Researchers then found links between the baseline cholesterol levels and later heart issues and created a model to predict one’s risk of heart problems based on sex, age and common risk factors like smoking habits, blood pressure and body mass index (BMI).
Through that model, researchers estimated that men and women younger than 45 years old, with non-HDL cholesterol between 145 and 185 mg/dL (healthy levels are below 130 mg/dL) and two or more other heart disease factors have 29 percent and 16 percent chance of having a heart problem by age 75, respectively.
However, men and women older than 60 with the same characteristics each have less probability of health problems, with 21 percent and 12 percent.
A reason for this is that younger adults with high cholesterol might accumulate the damage longer, before reaching 75, as opposed to the older adults who have accumulated it over a shorter period.
Another possible reason is that older adults simply had better health than younger adults at the time of the first study.
In conclusion, the study emphasizes the importance of preventing heart disease by lowering high cholesterol levels in early adulthood. Researchers estimated that young people with less than half non-HDL cholesterol than those in this study might decrease the chance of later heart problems by only 6 percent for men and 4 percent for women.
To lower cholesterol levels, doctors might prescribe medications or suggest a healthy diet plan. People should also limit their fatty meat and high-fat dairy intake and switch to whole grains and healthy fats like fish and avocados.
Exercising regularly, getting plenty of sleep and avoiding smoke can also help maintain a lower cholesterol level. (vel/kes)
