Cholesterol check also in young people
Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.
More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.Anyone who already has high blood lipid levels as a young person should definitely have them treated. Because over the years the damage caused by the deposits in the vessels adds up.The risk of cardiovascular diseases is thus much higher than for people whose values only rise later in life.
“High cholesterol at a young age is dangerous. This is likely to be similar to smoking, where the individual risk depends heavily on the total number of cigarettes that have been smoked over a lifetime, ”explains Prof. Oliver Weingärtner, cardiologist at the Oldenburg Clinic at the Heart Days of the German Society for Cardiology in Berlin.
Even with high cholesterol levels, the total exposure over a lifetime is likely to be decisive. That is why it is so important to recognize high cholesterol early and treat it. "Today we are of the opinion that cholesterol is a more important risk factor than, for example, diabetes or high blood pressure," explains Weingärtner.
Cholesterol Screening for Young
Elevated cholesterol levels also occur in young people. Critical values of more than 240 mg / dl are reached by five percent of 18 to 29 year olds and 14 percent of 30 to 40 year olds.
High cholesterol levels are only partially the result of an unhealthy lifestyle. Often they are also genetically determined - especially if they increase at a young age. But that often goes unnoticed. Experts are therefore calling for young, apparently healthy patients to be screened as well.
The Netherlands is a role model here. If an LDL level above 190 mg / dL is found in a young person, the patient is examined for appropriate risk genes. If the doctors find what they are looking for, all first-degree relatives, i.e. parents, children and siblings, are examined and, if necessary, treated.
New ways in therapy
There are increasingly new ways of doing this. “Statins are used as standard medication, but not all patients respond equally well to them,” explains Weingärtner. In these cases you have other options. For example, there are drugs that prevent food cholesterol from being absorbed through the intestines. These work very well for some patients, but less so for others.
So-called PCSK9 inhibitors have recently become the latest therapeutic option. They make the liver absorb more LDL cholesterol from the blood. The active ingredient has to be injected regularly, but then works very well in patients for whom the usual therapies do not work sufficiently.
When high cholesterol is inherited
Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is caused by a defective gene. As a result, the body's cells cannot absorb the LDL cholesterol sufficiently. It continues to circulate in the blood and eventually deposits on the inner walls of the blood vessels.
A possible consequence is arteriosclerosis, which can occur in those affected at an unusually young age - even if they are slim, do sports and eat healthily. You are threatened with a heart attack or stroke early on. Experts estimate that at least one in 500 people in Germany has familial hypercholesterolemia. That is around 160,000 to 200,000 people. In addition, there are those young people who have high blood lipid levels due to an unhealthy lifestyle.
