Why LDL is Not Enough: The Tests Your Doctor is Missing to Assess Your Risk of Heart Disease | Know Your Numbers

8 snips

Feb 16, 2024

Heart disease is often misunderstood, focusing too heavily on LDL cholesterol. The podcast delves into the need for personalized health assessments that go beyond traditional testing. It challenges outdated diet-heart paradigms and highlights how genetics and lifestyle dramatically influence cardiovascular health. Emphasizing innovative testing, the importance of metabolic health, and the risks of alcohol consumption, listeners learn about tailored strategies for heart disease prevention. This insightful discussion reveals the complex interplay between diet, genetics, and overall wellness.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Conventional Cardiology's Limitations

Cardiologists often overlook the broader context of human biology when treating heart disease.
Standard lipid panels only measure cholesterol weight, not quality or particle number.

INSIGHT

Importance of Particle Number and Quality

Standard cholesterol panels miss crucial details about particle number and quality.
Even with normal cholesterol levels, high particle numbers and small particle sizes indicate increased risk.

ANECDOTE

Case Study: Hidden High Risk

Dr. Hyman reviewed a patient's seemingly perfect cholesterol panel.
Advanced testing revealed high lipid particles and small particles, indicating a hidden high risk missed by traditional tests.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

View the Show Notes For This Episode

Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman

Get Ad-free Episodes & Dr. Hyman+ Audio Exclusives

Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death. For years, the diet-heart hypothesis, which centers on high cholesterol as the primary culprit, has dominated the medical discourse. But now, we're beginning to appreciate the complexity and nuance of how the outer workings of our environment influence the inner workings of our physiology and risk for heart disease.

In today’s episode of a new series I’m calling Know Your Numbers, I deep dive into the Functional Medicine approach to assessing cardiovascular risk and why this is key to preventing and, in some cases, reversing cardiovascular disease.

You can test your cardiovascular risk with Function Health, a company I co-founded. It has been a lifelong dream for me. Function is the first-ever membership that includes 100+ lab tests and personalized insights from globally renowned doctors based on your results. Join Function at FunctionHealth.com.

This episode is brought to you by AG1, Sweetgreen, and OPEN.

Get your daily serving of vitamins, minerals, adaptogens, and more with AG1. Head to DrinkAG1.com/Hyman and get 10 FREE travel packs + a FREE Welcome Kit with your first order.

We could use more Sweetgreens in the world. So check out your nearest Sweetgreen or go to Sweetgreen.com to learn more.

Take your meditation practice further and start your FREE 30-day trial of Open by visiting withopen.com/MARK today.

Here are more details from the episode (audio version / Apple Subscriber version):

Prevalence of cardiovascular disease and heart attacks (9:38 / 8:08)
Why conventional medicine misses the mark in assessing and treating cardiovascular disease risk and “high” cholesterol (10:50 / 9:20)
The testing you should be getting to assess cardiovascular risk (28:23 / 26:53)
The major root causes of heart disease (46:38 / 44:10)
Cholesterol: What is it and how is it related to heart disease? (47:20 / 44:52)
Insulin resistance and heart disease (55:09 / 52:50)
Total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, LDL cholesterol, and other relevant biomarkers (58:12 / 55:44)
Root causes of suboptimal biomarkers (1:28:05 / 1:25:37)
Additional diagnostic testing (1:31:04 / 1:28:36)
Diet, lifestyle, and supplements for reducing cardiovascular risk (1:37:30 / 1:35:02)