#cholesterol #youth #leads #early #heart #damage
A study of 17-year-olds who were followed up until the age of 24 shows that if the cholesterol level is too high in adolescence, heart damage often occurs in young adulthood.
Elevated levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol increased the risk of visible heart damage by 18 to 20 percent within seven years, and increased triglycerides even two to three times. This was the result of the study of 1,595 young people. Men and women were equally affected.
A normal body weight and normal blood pressure could not compensate for the negative consequences of increased cholesterol levels on the heart. The increased cholesterol level contributed to around 30 percent of the damage to the heart, increased fat mass and increased blood pressure indirectly contributed to around 40 percent, the remaining 30 percent are probably due to hereditary predisposition and prolonged sitting.
“Medical guidelines usually recommend cholesterol control only at the age of 40. However, we began to see signs of the catastrophic effects of elevated cholesterol on the heart two decades earlier. Waiting until age 40 could result in one in five adults developing preventable heart problems,” warned Dr. Andrew Agbaje from the University of Eastern Finland, who published the results with his team in the specialist magazine “Atherosclerosis”.
He explained that lack of exercise is primarily to blame: “We found that sitting for long periods of time in childhood is responsible for 70 percent of the increase in cholesterol levels before your mid-twenties. Even mild physical activity can completely reverse elevated cholesterol and dyslipidemia.”
Quelle: DOI 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2023.117440
