Professor Robert Byrne

Yeah, so cholesterol is a substance that's actually quite widespread in our body and it's an important component of building cells and helping the organs and tissues in our body to work normally.

But too much cholesterol and particularly cholesterol of a particular type is an important risk factor for heart attack and stroke.

Yes, that's true.

You need some of it in your body.

People generally know they say, listen, cholesterol is associated with dietary intake.

And that's true.

But a lot of the cholesterol levels in someone's blood is also genetic.

It's genetic.

It's the way that their body metabolizes cholesterol, the way their liver metabolizes cholesterol.

So, yes, diet and lifestyle is important, but some people are genetically predisposed to have an unfavourable mix.

And that gets back to what you said in terms of good cholesterol and bad cholesterol.

Actually, we know these fractions quite well and we can test them easily in a blood test.

Yeah, there's definitely an age association.

Historically, we've always said, listen, when you get to the age of 40 or so, you definitely need to have a good handle on what your heart disease risk is.

And that means...

knowing what your cholesterol is, knowing what your fasting blood sugar is and knowing what your blood pressure is.

It is something that changes a bit with life.

Like if you take a neonate or a small baby, like they'll have very low natural cholesterol levels.

So human beings have naturally quite low blood cholesterol levels.

But as we get older, particularly young,