A more-than-two-decades-long study of cholesterol levels in the United States, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has yielded encouraging results: cholesterol levels in Americans have been dropping. The study, which included nearly 38,000 people who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys between 1988 and 2012, showed that average total cholesterol decreased from 206 mg/dL in 1988 to 196 mg/dL in 2010; average LDL cholesterol fell from 129 mg/dL to 116 mg/dL; HDL (“good”) cholesterol increased from 51 mg/dL to 53 mg/dL; and non-HDL cholesterol dropped from 155 mg/dL to 144 mg/dL.
Study authors speculate that two factors underlie the encouraging trends: More Americans are being treated with cholesterol-lowering drugs, and a more nutritionally aware public has modified its diet to include a lesser intake of trans fats. (The efforts of food manufacturers and restaurant chains to reduce trans fats may also be reflected in the results.) The reduction in overall cholesterol was seen in both men and women and in all ethnic groups. Donna Arnett, president of the American Heart Association, says, “Reductions in cholesterol have contributed substantially to the decline in heart disease” that has been seen during the same time period: the rate of mortality from cardiovascular diseases dropped by more than 30% between 1998 and 2008. Read more in an article from the New York Times, with useful links.
