The new guidelines will help doctors determine heart attack risk more precisely than was possible before, said Dr. Scott Grundy, ATP III chairperson and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. That allows treatment to be more individualized. We now know that cholesterol-lowering treatment is more effective when its intensity closely matches the level of risk. That s important because, although risk typically increases with age, the foundation for heart disease is often laid in adolescence and early adulthood. So Americans need to act now to prevent that future heart attack or heart disease itself.
Every risk factor needs to be treated.
Cleeman advises Americans to check with their doctor to learn their overall risk for a heart attack and what, if any, treatment is needed. Besides their very high short-term risk for having a coronary event, persons with Type 2 diabetes also have a particularly high risk of dying from a heart attack. Type 2 diabetes, or noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, is the most common form of the disease and affects more than 14 million Americans. A lipoprotein profile as the first test for high cholesterol. A lipoprotein profile measures levels of LDL, total cholesterol, HDL, and triglycerides, another fatty substance in the blood.