Number of people with High Cholesterol Drops

Data just out from the CDC show that only 13.4% of adults in the U.S. have high cholesterol, according to data collected in 2009 and 2010. A decade earlier, 18.3% of American adults had high cholesterol. High cholesterol starts at 240 milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood. Having high cholesterol more than doubles the risk of a heart attack compared with desirable total cholesterol, which is less than 200 milligrams per deciliter. The government had set a public health goal of getting the proportion of adults with high cholesterol down to 17% or less by 2010. Lately, the obesity wave appears to have leveled off, but at a pretty high mark. Some two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight.