Elevated blood cholesterol has been established as a serious risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke which are leading causes of death in the United States. A disease known as familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) causes an increase in blood levels of the "bad" form of cholesterol, known as low density lipoprotein (LDL). In this experiment, a simulated genetic test for FH is demonstrated in which patients are tested for a DNA polymorphism linked to the FH gene.