A new study says that to prevent any heart problems later in life, people who are 45 years old and younger with higher levels of bad cholesterol needs to make changes with their exercise and eating habits, or even talk to their doctor and nutritionist about medications such as statins.
The study was published in the medical journal the Lancet, and it is one of the most comprehensive analyses of the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease related to what is known as non-HDL cholesterol. Non-HDL cholesterol is your total cholesterol value minus your good cholesterol or HDL. Non-HDL cholesterol includes LDL, or bad cholesterol, that builds up in the walls of your arteries, restricting blood and oxygen flowing to your heart, and triglycerides, which is the fat carried in your blood from the food that you eat.
Reducing risk by lowering cholesterol earlier
The published study looked at the records of 400,000 people. Their ages range from 30 to 85 years old and the patients came from 19 countries. They were tracked for almost 14 years.
Based on the data, the group that was most at risk for future heart problems that are related to non-HDL cholesterol were those who were younger than 45 years old. The study showed that women who are under the age of 45 with non-HDL cholesterol levels that were less than optimal had a 16% chance of having a non-fatal heart disease or stroke by the time that they turn 75. That is if the women had at least two additional cardiovascular risk factors, like they were overweight.
For older women with the same risk factors, the risk was 12%. For men who were under the age of 45 with those same risk factors, the risk was 29%. For men who were 60 years old and older, it was 21%.
Barbara Thorand, the author of the study and a researcher with the German Research Center for Environmental Health said that the increased risk in younger people could be because of the longer exposure to harmful lipids in the blood. Most cholesterol goal calculators and current cholesterol guidelines are all based on a 10-year risk of having a heart attack.
The study also suggests that calculation could be underestimating the risk, but more research needs to be done. The authors of the study calculated the risk and said that if people in under the age of 45 cut their non-HDL cholesterol levels in half, they can reduce their risk of heart problems significantly, from 29% to 6% for men and 16% to 4% for women, despite other cardiovascular risk factors. This means that the risk reduction is larger if cholesterol levels come down at a younger age.
How to lower your cholesterol
The director of Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, Dr. Roger Blumenthal, said that the Lancet study is a very well-done analysis that is helpful to doctors and patients. Blumenthal did not work on the study, but he helped write the current American Heart Association cholesterol treatment guidelines. He stated that doctor-patient conversation are the key to good heart health and this information could be another part of the conversation.
In order to lower your cholesterol, the AHA guideline states that patients need to start with lifestyle changes first. Blumenthal said that it is best if you avoid gaining weight. You can exercise for 30 miniutes every day, or five days a week at least. Do not smoke or use any tobacco products. Calories needs to be kept at a healthy amount.
According to the current US dietary guidelines, that would be 1,600 to 2,400 calories every day for adult women and 2,000 to 3,000 calories for adult men. If the cholesterol levels of the patient still remains high, starting on statin can help reduce strokes or heart attacks.
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