BeeHealthy
High cholesterol called women’s health issue

More than half of women over age 55 need to lower their blood cholesterol, and a quarter of all American women have blood cholesterol levels high enough to pose a serious risk for coronary heart disease.

Overall, an estimated 105 million American adults have total blood cholesterol levels of 200 milligrams per deciliter and higher, which is above desirable levels.

Of these, 42 million have levels of 240 mg/dL or higher, which is considered high risk. This is important because cholesterol levels are a contributing factor to heart disease, which develops over years.

But, don’t fool yourself into thinking that high blood cholesterol is a problem only for middle-aged or elderly men and women.

In fact, up to one-third of American children from age two through the teenage years have high cholesterol, which can lead to heart disease in adulthood.

Guidelines released by the National Cholesterol Education Program, a division of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, in May 2001 and in July 2004, substantially expanded the number of American women and men warranting treatment for high cholesterol.

Based on mounting evidence that deaths from heart disease could be cut with aggressive treatment of high cholesterol, the NCEP guidelines spotlight elevated LDL or “bad” cholesterol.

Elevated LDL cholesterol injures blood vessel walls and has been identified as a major cause of coronary heart disease.

For more information on the updated NHLBI cholesterol guidelines, visit the Web site www.nhlbi.nih.gov.