A recent study investigates the relationship between cholesterol levels in young adulthood and cardiovascular risk in later life — with interesting recommendations for further research. Research has already well documented that high cholesterol levels can lead to heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, and stroke, the fifth leading cause of death.
Cholesterol is a fatty substance that the liver and foods we eat, such as eggs, cheese, and certain meat products produce.Cholesterol is necessary for the body to function. However, too much “bad” cholesterol, which is also called low-density lipoprotein (LDL), can clog the arteries with a fatty buildup, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, or peripheral artery disease.Scientists have also linked high total cholesterol to overweight, lack of exercise, smoking, and alcohol consumption.More than 12% of adults in the U.S. aged 20 years and over have total cholesterol levels above 240 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), which doctors consider high. Of children and adolescents aged 6–19 years, some 7% have high total cholesterol.High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is “good” cholesterol and helps to sweep LDL from the arteries back to the liver, which removes it from the body. A new, comprehensive study, appearing in The Lancet, follows almost 400,000 people in 19 countries for up to 43.5 years (1970–2013). The findings shine a spotlight on the link between bad cholesterol (non-HDL) levels in people under 45 years of age and the long-term risk of heart disease and stroke.Set apart from previous studies, this observational and modeling study, which looked at individual level data, suggests that elevated non-HDL cholesterol levels at a younger age can predict cardiovascular risk at 75 years of age.
The study used data from 38 studies carried out in the U.S., Europe, and Australia.
Of the nearly 400,000 individuals that the study followed, none had cardiovascular disease at the start. The scientists tracked the participants over decades and took details of any heart disease event, fatal or otherwise, or stroke.
In total, there were 54,542 incidents of heart disease, fatal or non-fatal, and stroke.When researchers analyzed the data for all age groups and both sexes, they saw that the risk of heart disease or stroke dropped continuously as non-HDL levels dropped. In fact, those with the lowest non-HDL levels.
