Cardio IQ Profile
Did you know that 75% of those who have had an early heart attack were already at their optimal cholesterol goal?
The chart below shows the cholesterol levels of people hospitalized for heart attack. 83% had LDL cholesterol levels below 130 and 50% were below 100! How can that be? What determines whether someone gets a heart attack if not the LDL cholesterol levels?
Well, LDL cholesterol levels are certainly valid risk factors but are only part of the story. There are other risk factors that can be tested which can determine who, among those with good cholesterol levels, will get the MI.
Heart disease is still the most common cause of death in America. Even though the incidence of heart attacks has been going down in men, and has stayed the same in women, cardiovascular disease and stroke are still the most common causes of disability in our nation. We need to improve our ability to diagnose cardiovascular disease in order to prevent cardiovascular events before the damage and disability happens.
We have about 1.3 million heart attacks in America every year, and about 800,000 strokes every year. In 60% of those with coronary artery disease, the first indication that they have a problem is with that first heart attack!
Even with the use of Statin drugs as well as anti-platelet therapy and aspirin, we still can only decrease the incidence of cardiovascular disease by 30%! Clearly we need more information to do a better job.
There is a significant amount of time in which the cardiovascular disease is progressing before that first heart attack. With advanced cardiovascular risk analysis – we can limit the risk of a first or second heart attack.
What are Advanced Cardiovascular Risk Markers?
Quest Diagnostics has put out a test panel, which can pinpoint various risk factors for cardiovascular disease and better identify those at risk for a cardiovascular event.
Why wait until you have a heart attack to realize you have heart disease?
Most people are shocked when they are diagnosed with a disease. I hear all the time from patients that they have had a healthy diet and exercise and they had no idea they would be diagnosed with heart disease, cancer, or a neurologic or autoimmune disease.
In answer to my question, “Have you have your risk factors tested?” the most often in answer is “No, I didn’t realize I could do that”. Granted that this tests risk factors for cardiovascular disease but cardiovascular disease is a disease of blood vessels, and every organ contains blood vessels and the health of every organ depends on the health of the vascular system.
At Tarrytown Functional Medicine, we believe in testing and addressing our treatment plans according to the results. We address diet and lifestyle and use nutrients to modify the risk factors and prevent illness. We treat nutritionally and we prove our results with repeat testing.