WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A scan of all the human DNA has turned up 95 genes that affect blood cholesterol, including a few affected by drugs on the market and others that might be the basis of new drugs, researchers said last week.

Their findings demonstrate that regulating cholesterol levels is even more complex than many people knew but also point to some short-cuts to prevent heart disease.

The variations they found account for between a quarter and a third of the inherited variation in cholesterol levels and triglycerides, the researchers report in the journal Nature. Diet and exercise can also greatly affect cholesterol levels.

"These results help refine our course for preventing and treating heart disease, a health problem that affects millions of Americans and many more people worldwide," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, who was part of the research team.

Collins has promised to steer the NIH to try to more quickly translate such basic scientific findings into developing drugs and other treatments. The NIH pays for and conducts scientific research, which is later often licensed to commercial drug companies to develop into products.