A special margarine is offering hope to children at risk of heart disease.

Made from pine pulp, and containing cholesterol-lowering chemicals called stanol esters, the margarine has been tested on Finnish families affected by the genetic disorder, familial hypercholesterolemia (FH).

People with the FH gene cannot rid their bodies efficiently of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) - the "bad" cholesterol linked to the development of heart disease.

Two thirds of men born with the condition develop heart disease by the age of 40 if they do not receive treatment.

Material published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association describes how 19 families from the North Karelia area of Eastern Finland was encourged to use the margarine in a study conducted by Dr Alpo Vuorio at the University of Helsinki.

After three months of eating 25g of the margarine a day levels of LDL cholesterol dropped by 18% in children, by 11% in FH family members, and by 12% in family members without the FH trait, researchers found.

Dr Vuorio told BBC News Online: "Atherosclerosis , the disease that underlies heart disease, begins in childhood with families with FH.

"It is therefore important to treat children as soon as possible to prevent cardiac incident happening early in life."

He said that current drug treatments for FH have unpleasant side effects, such as nausea, which children find distressing.

The drugs can also increase the body's levels of triglycerides - another fat in the body that is strongly linked to heart disease.

He said: "The margarine has no side effects and because it gives such a significant reduction in cholesterol, it greatly increases the quality of life for the individuals using it."

He added: "Finnish North Karelia represents a high-risk coronary heart disease area, probably due to a combination of unfavorable dietary habits and cholesterol-raising genes.

"This situation led us to conduct the first evaluation of a family therapy to lower cholesterol. We found that even family members who do not have FH decreased their LDL cholersterol levels by about 12% by eating this margarine.

"Very good results have been achieved with this margarine in long-term follow-up studies of adults whose high cholesterol levels were not as severe as in FH."