New findings suggest even slightly high levels of cholesterol in one's 30s to 50s could lead to heart disease later in life.
The new findings suggest every level of high cholesterol can raise one's risk of cardiovascular problems by up to 39 percent, Duke Medicine reported.
"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 the study's lead author Ann Marie Navar-Boggan. "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."
To make their findings the researchers looked at 1,478 adults who were free of heart disease at age 55 and who were part of the Framingham Heart Study, which started back in 1948.
"Few, if any, studies have gathered the quality of the cardiovascular data that the Framingham study has," said biostatistician Michael Pencina, 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."
The team determined that by the age of 55 about 40 percent of the participants had at least a decade. Over the next 15 years, their risk of heart disease was at 16.5 percent, which is four times higher than those without elevated cholesterol levels.
"It's never too soon for young adults to talk with their doctors about a comprehensive strategy for heart health, first and foremost focusing on diet and exercise," Navar-Boggan said. "Our study suggests, though, that young adults who cannot control cholesterol with diet and exercise alone may benefit from medication earlier in life."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Circulation.
