The use of blood pressure medication and cholesterol lowering drugs is on the rise among young adults.

According to a study done by Medco Health Solutions, a prescription benefit manager, cholesterol-lowering drug use among people ages 20 to 44 has jumped 68 percent over a six-year period. That means nearly 4.2 million Americans in that age group are now taking cholesterol medicines.

Dr. Marc Shulman, staff physician at the Thielen Student Health Center, said the increase in medication use correlates with an increase in screening.

“We are looking for it more often,” Shulman said.

Shulman said there are a lot of risk factors involved with high blood pressure, or hypertension, and high cholesterol. Many things can contribute to having these diseases, such as smoking, a high-fat diet and little to no exercise.

“There is a genetic problem as well. Race can play a factor,” Shulman said. “Males are more prone than females are.”

Dr. Rebecca Fritzsche, staff physician at the Thielen Student Health Center, agreed.

“There’s been public health concern, [so] we started screening people a little bit earlier,” she said.

Fritzsche spoke about the National Cholesterol Education Program and that its guidelines suggest screening at least every five years for all persons 20 and over.

“That’s a change that came in 2001,” Fritzsche said. “Perhaps more people are being screened, so more abnormalities are being detected.”

Experts point to higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol problems among young people.

“Now if they have other risk factors, such as smoking and diabetes,” Fritzsche said, “We encourage them to take the medicine.”

Even those with active lifestyles can have this problem.

“It’s not always from a sedentary lifestyle either,” Shulman said. “We have athletes on campus that are on these medications. Some are as young as 18.”

Meanwhile, the use of blood pressure medicine increased 21 percent in the same age group. That means roughly 8.5 million Americans in this age group are taking the drugs to lower their blood pressure. Shulman believes a possible reason for the increase also might include the inability to want to work at lowering it.

“We [Americans] want something easy,” he said.

Both Shulman and Fritzsche agreed changing personal habits will significantly lower a person’s risk to suffer from these diseases.

“These diseases have cumulative effects,” Shulman said, “unless there are some major modifications to lifestyle such as diet and exercise.”

Fritzsche agreed and added that there is more obesity in the nation.

“But sometimes with obesity, that can be a factor for elevated lipids as well,” Fritzsche said.

Among people ages 65 and older, the use of the drugs has only risen slightly by 9.5 percent. That’s because half the seniors were already taking blood pressure medication, and more than one in four were already taking cholesterol drugs.

Federal health statistics show that while the percentage of people with high cholesterol has dropped over the years, it has risen among younger people, especially those 20 to 34 years old.

While the prevalence of high blood pressure among those age groups was flat or up slightly, the rate of high blood pressure among women ages 35 to 44 rose.

Normal blood pressure is 120 over 80, but it is a range. The closer a person can get to that range the better, but lower is also okay.

“There is no cure for these diseases,” Shulman said. “But we can control it.”