“But when you see it on someone who does not have a known history of high cholesterol, it is a good idea to get that checked as there is roughly a 50% chance they have it.”
Despite the uncertainty around the link between cholesterol and xanthelasmas, past research has supported the association between xanthelasmas and heart disease.
One past study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that the patches could predict heart attack, heart disease, and even death.
It found that men aged between 70 and 79 with yellow blobs had a 12 percent higher risk of heart disease than people without them.
Women of the same age had an eight percent risk.
The data, which researchers analysed to find the trends, included 12,745 people involved in the Copenhagen City Heart Study over a period of 33 years.
Surprisingly, the study found that even people who had Xanthelasmas but normal cholesterol levels still had a higher risk of dying from a heart attack.
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