It is not often we hear about cholesterol levels amongst our young adult population. The frightening figures have been revealed however and some startling discoveries have been made. 1,500 young adults were involved in the survey, with one in six shown to have higher than normal cholesterol levels. More worryingly, one in five of those who are aware of the problem do nothing about it.
Knowing that you have it and ignoring the problem is dangerous as cholesterol is a cause of heart disease, one of Britain’s biggest killers. The symptoms can be few and sometimes no symptoms are experienced. Even jogging every day and eating reasonably well might not keep you safe from the clutches of high cholesterol as the condition is not always lifestyle dependent.
One third of the population have never had their cholesterol tested. Perhaps this is down to a lack of knowledge on the topic. Only 14% of those who took the survey knew that HDL represented ‘good cholesterol’ and that LDL was recognised as ‘bad cholesterol’. Two thirds of those surveyed did not know the difference between the two. Another two thirds of people did not know what their family history of cholesterol is, a massive indicator for the possibility of developing high cholesterol levels. It is apparent that the British population need to be educated and this survey coincides with the first ever cholesterol awareness week running from September 13th to September 19th.