Do you know what level of risk you carry?
If not, get tested and find out.
If you know you have high risk:
the most important question you can ask is:
Am I getting better? Or worse?
Ask the Arteries.
They’ll tell you.
We check more surface arteries than anyone else on the planet.
What you get is two ultrasound studies. The first one shows your risk. The second one shows trending, and answers the question: “Am I getting better? Or worse?”
You’ll know if your prevention program is working. Or not. Without trending, you can only guess.
Even if your cholesterol is getting better, your arteries might be getting worse. Cholesterol is an important risk factor. By all means treat it. Half of patients with heart attacks have a normal cholesterol (1). Don’t rely on simply treating your cholesterol. There are other important risk factors. Don’t rely on guesswork. Know your arteries.
References:
Sachdeva et al. Lipid levels in patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease: an analysis of 136,905 hospitalizations in Get With The Guidelines. Am Heart Journal. 2009;157(1):111-117.e2.