What Is Familial Hyperlipidaemia?

It's a genetic condition which strongly predisposes a person to have high blood cholesterol. It's also sometimes called familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), and about 1 in 500 people have it. Men are worse affected by hving FH than women.

The way FH works is that the "bad" cholesterol (the type that can clog up blood vessels) gets removed from the blood much more slowly than it should be. The net effect is that people with FH are very likely to have heart disease problems by age 60, even if they live the healthiest of lifestyles.

That said, people with FH can do a lot to protect their health, starting in childhood if possible, because even then good diet makes a difference in adult life. Not smoking or becoming overweight is also incredibly important for people with FH. Medication is also a good idea, although how much and at what age depends on the person's own cholesterol levels.

FH is a dominant inherited disorder, 50% of a sufferer's children will also have FH. If 2 people with FH want to start a family, they should seek genetic counselling because getting two genes for FH can be very dangerous to the child.

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