Knowing your heart disease risk: How does cholesterol fit in?

It's quite commonly known that high total cholesterol and LDL levels are directly related to an increased risk of heart disease and that the relationship is graded and continuous. This risk even applies to people under the age of 40. Low HDL and high triglycerides also contribute to this risk but apparently to a lesser extent, especially in men. In women, however, low HDL may be as important as high LDL as a risk factor. When talking about heart disease risk, abnormal cholesterol is just one major determinant. The other major risk factors for heart disease include your age (>45yrs for a man and >55yrs for a woman), family history of heart disease (father or brother diagnosed before age 55, mother or sister diagnosed before age 65), smoking, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Determining your risk of heart disease includes identifying these multiple risk factors. In addition, you can also determine your risk of a heart attack using the Framingham Risk Score. It's called Framingham because the data used to make the risk score calculation comes from a project started in 1948 called the Framingham Heart Study. This project has now studied three generations of people living in Framingham, MA, and has generated a substantial amount of epidemiologic data regarding heart disease risk factors. This risk score takes into account several but not all of the major risk factors and estimates your risk of suffering a heart attack over the next 10yrs. A different risk score schema exists for men and women. Here's what they look like:

Estimate of 10-Year Risk for Men (Framingham Point Scores)