The less-discussed triglycerides also lead to heart attack and stroke.
In the last 30 years, a cardiac foe that lurks in the bloodstream has seen its ranks swell to new heights.
No, not cholesterol. The proportion of Americans with high cholesterol has actually fallen, thanks largely to the emergence of a cholesterol-busting class of drugs called statins. One of those pharmaceuticals, Lipitor, has been the nation's best-selling drug several years running.
Triglycerides, however, are on the rise, according to a study presented by a Jacksonville-based health organization at the American Heart Association's annual conference Sunday.
About one out of three Americans have too many triglycerides in their blood, the National Lipid Association said in the report. That's a 10 percent increase from 1976 levels.
Blame the nation's worsening eating habits, said the study's author, Jerome Cohen, an internal medicine and cardiology professor at St. Louis University.
"When we eat too much of the wrong foods and don't exercise enough, the lipids accumulate in the body and in the arteries. This is what leads over time to diseases like heart attack and stroke. And these are our No. 1 and No. 3 killers," Cohen said.
The three key lipids when it comes to cardiac health are LDL (aka "bad" cholesterol), HDL ("good" cholesterol) and triglycerides (fat found in blood).
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