Dyslipidemia, or high cholesterol, comes with no symptoms, but is a silent killer and a major risk factor for heart disease in India, said health experts on Sunday.
The first-ever Indian guidelines for dyslipidemia management released by the Cardiological Society of India (CSI) early this month, recommended early cholesterol testing, at the age of 18 years, to identify the risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) earlier in life.
This comes as recent data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) showed that India witnessed a staggering 12.5 per cent increase in heart attack cases in 2022 alone.
According to the 2023 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report, the age-standardised CVD death rate of 272 per 100,000 population in India is higher than the global average of 235 per 100,000 population, indicating a significant CVD burden in the country.