'Lifestyle affects cholesterol levels'

While a growing numbers of kids have high cholesterol levels and other heart disease risk factors, a new study suggests a healthy lifestyle may be the antidote.

The researchers, who measured the cholesterol and triglycerides levels of over 500 youths and followed them for 2 decades found that the people at risk for high cholesterol in both childhood and adulthood were the ones more likely to have smoked and gained more body fat over that period.

According to the findings published in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, people with high cholesterol at 15 could normalize it by their mid-30s.

This would require these individuals to shift from harmful habits like smoking to regular fitness exercises and a healthy diet.

Moreover, those children who were overweight or obese and who began or continued smoking were among the most likely to maintain their high blood cholesterol and elevated risk status throughout the study, said researchers from the University of Tasmania in Australia and the University of Turku in Finland.