OPINION — New guidance from the American Heart Association puts a sharper focus on cholesterol earlier in life.
It says healthy lifestyle counseling should start in youth, and that cholesterol medication should be considered earlier for some patients, including young people with a strong family history of premature heart disease, those with familial hypercholesterolemia (a genetic condition that causes very high cholesterol levels to run in families) and young adults with LDL cholesterol of 160 mg/dL or higher.
As a young primary care physician in Arizona, I understand why this can feel like something to think about later. Many people in their 20s and 30s feel fine and have plenty of other things competing for their attention. But the guidance makes an important point: the longer someone lives with high LDL cholesterol, the more that exposure can raise the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease over time.
