THE best approach to reducing incidence of coronary heart disease, which kills millions every year, is by lowering cholesterol early on, according to University of California researchers.

Pioneering lipid researcher Daniel Steinberg, professor emeritus of medicine, University of California and colleagues Christopher Glass and Joseph Witztum, dismissed current approaches to lowering cholesterol as 'too little, too late'.

With a large body of evidence proving that low cholesterol levels equate with low rates of heart disease, 'our long-term goal should be to alter our lifestyle accordingly, beginning in infancy or early childhood' and 'instituting a low-saturated fat, low-cholesterol diet in infancy is perfectly safe, without adverse effects...'

According to Steinberg, progress has been made in the treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD) in adults with cholesterol lowering drugs like statins.

However, while studies show a 30 per cent decrease in death and disability from CHD in patients treated with statins, 70 per cent of patients have cardiac events while on statin therapy.

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