Doctors should start screening and managing cholesterol in people as early as their 30s, according to new medical guidelines released by leading US heart organisations.
The updated recommendations from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology suggest that heart disease prevention needs to start long before the typical age when heart attacks or strokes occur.
The guidance, published Friday in the journals Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, is the first major update since 2018.
ALSO READ | GLP-1 Drugs Tied To Fewer Addictions, Overdoses In Large Study
The new document, titled the 2026 Guideline on the Management of Dyslipidemia, focuses on diagnosing and treating dyslipidemia, a condition involving abnormal levels of blood fats such as cholesterol and triglycerides.
According to the American Heart Association, one in four adults in the US has high LDL cholesterol, often called “bad” cholesterol, which significantly raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Screening begins earlier
The new guidelines push for earlier screening and treatment decisions. Doctors are now encouraged to check cholesterol risks in adults in their 30s and evaluate long-term cardiovascular risk rather than focusing only on the next decade.
“We're trying to help clinicians and patients decide: When should medicine be considered?” said Roger Blumenthal, chair of the guideline writing committee and director of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Baltimore, as per NBC News.
“We always want to try to strive to improve lifestyle habits at each and every visit but sometimes medication can be very helpful if lifestyle doesn't do the trick.”
New biomarkers added to testing
For the first time, the guidelines also recommend testing certain biomarkers in the blood that are linked to cardiovascular risk. These include:
Lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a) is now recommended to be tested at least once in a lifetime.
Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) which may be measured selectively to improve risk assessment.
These markers can help doctors identify people who may face higher risks of cardiovascular disease even if traditional cholesterol levels appear normal.
ALSO READ | CDSCO Modifies Norms For Testing Permissions To Speed Up Drug Approvals
Measuring risk over a lifetime
Another major update is how doctors calculate heart disease risk.
“We're changing the way we measure risk,” said Christopher Kramer, a cardiologist at the UVA Health Heart and Vascular Center in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Not just assessing 10-year risk but also assessing 30-year risk, and that goes back to it being a lifelong disease.”
Updated treatment approach
The guidelines also bring back clearer cholesterol targets. They reintroduce specific goals for LDL cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, with lower targets recommended for higher-risk individuals.
Doctors are also encouraged to use coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring, a scan that measures calcium buildup in the arteries, to better classify a person's heart risk and guide treatment decisions.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.