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• Posted November 20, 2024

About 1 in 10 U.S. Adults Have High Cholesterol

Nearly 1 in every 10 American adults is living with high levels of cholesterol in their arteries, according to the latest report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The data, from 2021 through 2023, found that 11.3% of adults have high total cholesterol -- a number that's held relatively steady since the introduction of cholesterol-lowering statins in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"High total cholesterol prevalence declined from 1999-2000 to 2013-2014 and then did not change significantly" in the years since, according to a team led by CDC researcher Margaret Carroll.

There wasn't a big difference in rates of high total cholesterol between men (10.6%) and women (11.9%), the researchers noted.

The new data came from a large ongoing federal survey of Americans' health.

Besides the decades-long drop in rates of unhealthy total cholesterol levels, Carroll's team also found that fewer numbers of adults now have dangerously low blood levels of HDL "good" cholesterol than in decades past.

A total of 13.8% of all U.S. adults had unhealthily low levels of this beneficial form of cholesterol in their blood from 2021 to 2023, the report found. That's a big improvement from the 22.2% rate recorded in 2007-2008, the CDC researchers noted.

There were certain anomalies by gender and age when it came to cholesterol levels, however.

For example, rates of total cholesterol peaked in middle age: 16.7% of adults ages 40 to 59 had high total cholesterol, the report found, but as they moved into their 60s and then into their "Medicare years," rates of high cholesterol fell to 11.3%.

Among those with low HDL levels, men were much likely to be affected than women, at 21.5% and 6.6%, respectively.

That's not a big surprise, since experts have long known that one of the health benefits of estrogen is a boost in levels of HDL cholesterol.

However, that can change after menopause, according to an expert at the Cleveland Clinic.

“When estrogen levels decline, levels of LDL cholesterol increase and levels of HDL cholesterol decrease,” cardiologist Dr. Leslie Cho said in a clinic blog post. “That can lead to a buildup of fat and cholesterol in the arteries that contributes to heart attack and stroke."

In the report, high total cholesterol was defined as blood levels of total cholesterol of 240 milligrams per decilier (mg/dL) or higher. Low HDL cholesterol was defined as blood levels of 40 mg/dL or lower.

The findings were published Nov. 20 as an National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief.

More information

Find out tips on how to control your cholesterol levels at the American Heart Association.

SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief, Nov. 20, 2024