More personalized risk assessments and new cholesterol-lowering drug options for people at the highest risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) are among the key recommendations in the 2018 cholesterol guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC).
The guidelines were presented today at the Association’s 2018 Scientific Sessions conference in Chicago, the premier annual global forum for the exchange of the latest advances in cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians. The guidelines were simultaneously published in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“The updated guidelines reinforce the importance of healthy living, lifestyle modification and prevention. They build on the major shift we made in our 2013 cholesterol recommendations to focus on identifying and addressing lifetime risks for cardiovascular disease,” said Ivor Benjamin, M.D., FAHA, president of the American Heart Association. “Having high cholesterol at any age increases that risk significantly. That’s why it’s so important that even at a young age, people follow a heart-heathy lifestyle and understand and maintain healthy cholesterol levels.”
Nearly one of every three American adults have high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), considered the “bad” cholesterol because it contributes to fatty plaque buildups and narrowing of the arteries. About 94.6 million, or 39.7 percent, of American adults have total cholesterol of 200 mg/dL or higher, while research shows that people with LDL-C levels of 100 mg/dL or lower tend to have lower rates of heart disease and stroke, supporting a “lower is better” philosophy.