Only half of U.S. adolescents have ideal cholesterol levels

Despite the overall improvement of cholesterol levels in U.S. teens and children from 1999 to 2016, a new study has found that only half of U.S. adolescents have ideal cholesterol levels and 25% of U.S. adolescents have cholesterol levels in the clinically high range. The research was led by Amanda Marma Perak, MD MS, cardiologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and published in JAMA. "High cholesterol in childhood is one of the key risk factors for developing heart disease later in life," …