According to leading doctors millions of people globally do not know that they have inherited high cholesterol levels which can trigger the risk heart attack in their thirties. Many lives could be saved successfully if people were tested routinely for the condition called FH- familial hyper-cholesterolaemia.
One in five hundred people have this hereditary disorder, which means they cannot appropriately clear cholesterol from their blood. It began to build up in their arteries during childhood can restrict the blood flow to the heart and raise the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Kids and young children who have relative with this disorder should endure routine hereditary tests. Those diagnosed with FH should eat healthy diet and take regular exercise in order to lower their cholesterol levels and diminish threat of grave diseases. If they are unable to lower their cholesterol levels through lifestyle changes they could be prescribed statins.
The early diagnosis of FH is crucial because it can prevent disease and save lives and radically decrease spending of NHS in treating those with heart problems. The report examined more one hundred hospitals across the country and concluded that there is main shortage of hereditary screening for family persons.
Only a quarter of hospitals have available with services to treat kids suffering FH, though those hospitals are usually of a good standard. Once identified, patients with FH are being treated quite well in NHS lipid clinics, the shortage of commissioned DNA testing and resources for tracing relatives mean that many FH patients remain undiagnosed, explained Prof Steve Humphries from British Heart Foundation.
They have shown that early detection and treatment of people with the condition could not only prevent people from having a heart attack in their thirties or forties but could actually give them back a normal life expectancy, explained Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation.