High Blood Cholesterol Newest Offering on NIHSeniorHealth Website
Many older adults have their blood cholesterol level checked regularly.
Now, easy-to-understand information about why this test is so important
to heart health and what the results mean is available on NIHSeniorHealth,
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Web site designed especially
for seniors. Consumers can log onto http://nihseniorhealth.gov/highbloodcholesterol/toc.html for
answers to questions such as: What's the difference between
LDL and HDL? Which one is the "good" cholesterol? What
are triglycerides? What do the numbers mean? How is high blood
cholesterol treated?
"Because high blood cholesterol does not cause symptoms,
many people are unaware that their levels are elevated," says
Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D., director of the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a component of NIH. "Lowering
cholesterol levels that are too high reduces the risk of developing
heart disease. NIHSeniorHealth is a great resource for older adults
who want to learn more about how to prevent, detect, and treat
high blood cholesterol."
One of the fastest growing age groups using the Internet, older
Americans increasingly turn to the World Wide Web for health information. In
fact, 68 percent of online seniors surf
for health and medical information when they go online. NIHSeniorHealth
is a joint effort of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and
the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The site is based
on the latest research on cognition and aging. It features
short, easy-to-read segments of information that can be accessed
in a number of different formats, including various large-print
type sizes, open-captioned videos, and even an audio version.
Additional topics coming soon to the site include Parkinson's
disease, leukemia, kidney failure, and eating well as you get older. The
site links to MedlinePlus, NLM's more detailed site for consumer
health information.
The NIA leads the Federal effort supporting and conducting research
on aging and the health and well-being of older people. The
NLM, the world's largest library of the health sciences, creates
and sponsors Web-based health information resources for the public
and professionals. The NHLBI supports research in diseases
of the heart, lung, and blood, and sleep disorders.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research,
and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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