Young People Need To Keep Track Of Their Cholesterol Levels, Too

Recent findings conducted by researchers at the Duke Clinical Research Institute suggest that even slightly high cholesterol levels in otherwise healthy adults between the ages of 35 and 55 can indicate long-term impacts on heart health, with every decade of high cholesterol increasing the risk of heart disease by 39 percent. The research is published in the journal Circulation.

"The number of years with elevated cholesterol, or 'lipid years,' can affect you in a similar way to the number of 'pack years' you have had as a smoker," said lead study author Ann Marie Navar-Boggan, M.D., Ph.D., in a news release. "It shows that what we're doing to our blood vessels in our 20s, 30s and 40s is laying the foundation for disease that will present itself later in our lives. If we wait until our 50s or 60s to think about cardiovascular disease prevention, the cat's already out of the bag."

For the study, researchers examined data on 1,478 adults who were free of heart disease at age 55 and part of the Framingham Heart Study that began in 1948.

"Few, if any, studies have gathered the quality of the cardiovascular data that the Framingham study has," added biostatistician Michael Pencina, Ph.D., a senior author of the paper. "That wealth of data collected over time made it possible to analyze the long-term effects of cholesterol in young people-a topic on which not enough is known because it requires decades of tracking."

Many young people may think they have years before they'll be hit with high cholesterol. Unfortunately, that might not always be the case. For the study, researchers determined the length of time each participant had high cholesterol by age 55 and followed for up to 20 years to see how cholesterol levels affected the risk of heart disease. Bad cholesterol, otherwise known as LDL, was defined as anything higher than 160 mg/dL.

Findings revealed that by 55, close to 40 percent of participants had at least 10 years of exposure to high cholesterol. By 15 years, the risk of heart disease was also nearly 16.5 percent or four times the rate of 4 percent seen among those without the health issue.

The results suggest that otherwise healthy adults between the ages of 35 and 55 may be in a group of people who should consider cholesterol control sooner than they might think, according to researchers. With earlier diagnosis, comes earlier treatments and procedures for a healthier lifestyle. 

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