Even kids who appear very healthy can have very high cholesterol levels, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Familial hypercholesterolemia is just what it sounds like: abnormally high cholesterol levels that run in families due to their genetics. Turns out these very high cholesterol levels begin in infancy, and unless someone is suspicious, are rarely tested for. That’s according to Seth Martin, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins and one author of new cholesterol guidelines from the American College of Cardiology.

Martin: When high levels of cholesterol are genetic it can lead to young kids, despite it can be a very healthy young kid but because of a specific gene can have very high levels of cholesterol from birth. So we want to identify that early and get on top of it early. The standard of care is to start treatment beyond healthy diet and lifestyle, to start treatment with a statin in childhood.    :25

So if you have even an inkling of a family history of high cholesterol levels get your children tested so treatment can begin immediately, Martin says, because such treatment can stave off the development of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.