“We are accustomed to being cholesterol in 40-50 years, but in reality it should be determined first at the age of 5-6. There are countries in the world, such as Slovenia, which are very purposefully performing this screening at the age of five,”s The day, Gustavs Latkovskis invites a cardiologist at P. Stradins Clinical University Hospital Unriga University professor.
What is family hypercholesterolemia?
Family hypercholesterolemia is a genetic disease that causes a very high “bad” or low -density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the blood. The disease is inherited from the parents and can be transmitted to the child if only one of the parents is a gene carrier. This is not a rare diagnosis – it is estimated that about 1 in 250 people suffer, but it often remains undetected in Latvia.
Why is it dangerous?
High cholesterol levels in a child do not cause pain or other obvious symptoms. However, it quietly damages the blood vessels, accelerating the formation of atherosclerosis. As a result, cardiovascular diseases – infarctions, angina or stroke – may develop such people at the age of 30-40 or earlier without preventive measures.
Watch more tonight in 360 news!
Photo: Inese Mauriņa, Parsirdi.lv
