New heart health recommendations emphasize early testing and treatment to lower cholesterol levels as key to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
A group of 11 medical associations including the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association released new guidelines on March 13 to help doctors and their patients manage cholesterol levels. The recommendations advise first testing cholesterol in childhood, around age 10, with the aim of helping patients keep levels low, reducing the chances a heart attack or a stroke might happen decades in the future. Also new is a cardiovascular risk calculator called PREVENT that is designed to assess heart attack and stroke risk over the next