When I was a teenager, my father had a heart attack. He was only 42. The common medical wisdom at the time suggested that he was far too young to be stricken by such a condition. But as it turns out, even very young men — of the same age I was when my dad fell victim — are at risk of suffering early heart damage as well, recent studies show.

JUST IN the past few months, surprising new research has highlighted the heart risks to both teenagers and young adult men.

A study reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation is particularly alarming. Researchers from Louisiana State University examined the arteries of 760 teens and young adults who died as a result of an accident, suicide or murder and found that many were clogged badly enough to cause a heart attack.

They found that 2 percent of males aged 15 to 19 and 20 percent of men between 30 and 34 had advanced fat-laden plaques, the obstructions that can become dislodged and cause a heart attack or stroke. They found no advanced plaques in girls 15 to 19, but did find them in 8 percent of women in the 30 to 34 range.

The investigators admit that their research cohort may not be representative of the public at large — perhaps people at risk of an early death eat poorly or have other factors associated with heart disease, such as depression. “But if our results hold true for larger populations, one in five men between the ages of 30 and 34 has some significant damage to his heart arteries,” says Dr. Henry McGill of the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas, who led the study.

“That would indicate the need to tailor prevention messages to younger people.”

Not surprisingly, the researchers found that those who were obese or had high levels of low-density lipoproteins (often called the “bad” cholesterol) were 2.5 times more likely to have advanced plaque blockages. The results, says McGill, give strong support to the idea that nutritional guidelines for the prevention of heart disease should be recommended for children as well as adults.

Another study that followed about 82,000 men over 34 years uncovered some equally startling data. While men in their 20s and 30s may think it unnecessary to worry about their cholesterol levels, the study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicates otherwise.

Younger men with high cholesterol face a greater long-term heart risk than men diagnosed with the condition in middle age for a simple reason: The longer high levels exist, the more damage they cause.

The JAMA report found that those with high levels of cholesterol were 3.5 times more likely to die of a heart disease-related death than men with healthful levels.

So what’s a strapping, invincible young man to do with this information? He should get a cholesterol test every five years beginning at age 20. If his level is above 240, he should try to bring it down through exercise, nutrition or, perhaps, medications.

And thus avoid the fate of many of the men in these two studies, as well as that of my father.