Live Well

Consider this startling statistic: 50% of people who have heart attacks have "normal" cholesterol.  Stated differently, half of all heart attack victims could have a routine cholesterol test done on the very day they have a heart attack and their cholesterol (by routine testing standards) would be "normal" range. So, why do so many practitioners use a diagnostic test that is only 50% accurate?  The reason is simple:  it’s the test with which they are familiar and have been... Read More

Did you know that everything you’ve learned about cholesterol and its association with heart attacks is only partly correct? Consider this startling statistic: 50% of people who have suffered a heart attack, have "normal" cholesterol. Another way of saying this is that among heart attack victims, standard cholesterol testing would have detected “normal” ranges in half of this population had it been performed on the day of their event. This begs the question: why do so many practitioners use a... Read More

There has been a lot of talk about cholesterol recently in the news.  This is largely due to one startling statistic to which most people are unaware: 50% of people who have heart attacks have "normal" cholesterol.  What??? Stated differently, that means that half of all heart attack victims may have had a routine cholesterol test done on the very day they had the heart attack and felt fine because their cholesterol (by routine testing standards) was "normal."  So, why do so... Read More