Predicting Female Heart Attacks 30 Years Early

Introduction to lipoprotein A 0:00

And then the single most important test to predict the cardiovascular disease in women and in families is called lipoprotein A. There's another one that's helpful called apolipoprotein B, but I want to focus on lipoprotein A today. And this is a very stubborn sub-fraction of LDL. And doctors and labs talk about low-density lipoprotein like it's a thing. It isn't a thing.

Predicting heart disease in women 0:31

It's a grouping of a whole variety of lipoproteins. Hi, and welcome to The Balancing Point. I'm Dr. John Needers, and I'm here to make traditional Chinese medicine, functional medicine, and integrative health simple, practical, and fun, so you can restore balance, boost vitality and enjoy a healthier life every single day. Hi, this is Dr. John coming to you with another episode of The Balancing Point and today I'm going to talk about an incredibly incredibly important topic, and that's predicting and preventing female heart attacks, also male heart attacks, but to a higher percentage female heart attacks.

Now, there have been multiple studies that have been done showing the factors that can predict cardiovascular disease in women. There's one very recent study where they said, you know, predicting female heart attacks 30 years in advance. Now these are particularly important when I'm doing my intake if there's a familial history of cardiovascular disease, heart attack,

Three key cardiovascular tests 1:35

stroke, et cetera, then I'm going to run a few different tests on these patients just to make sure that they're safe. Now the three tests that can diagnosis, and this is what's amazing. It's only three tests and they're not very expensive. It's not like they're going to break the bank. They run a lipid test, which most doctors run anyway. That's $6 if we run it. an HSCRP, that's high sensitivity C reactive protein, which measures inflammation in the heart and the arteries. Now there's another test called a quantitative C reactive protein, which measures systemic inflammation.

Very valuable test. And if you have signs or symptoms of a variety of conditions, your doctor may run them, but they do not run HSCRP nearly enough. We run this on almost every panel that we run. Our cost for that to our patients is $12. So it's not a bank breaker. And then the single most important test to predict the cardiovascular disease in women and in families is called lipoprotein A. There's another one that's helpful called apolipoprotein B, but I want to focus on lipoprotein A today.

Why lipoprotein A matters most 2:56

And this is a very stubborn sub-fraction of LDL. And doctors and labs talk about low-density lipoprotein like it's a thing. It isn't a thing. It's a grouping of a whole variety of lipoproteins, and there are different ways to put them into patterns, et cetera. You can have small versus large. You can have buoyant versus non-buoyant. You can have multiple different types. But the one that is the most dangerous is lipoprotein A. And that test is a whopping $18. So if you ran all three of these panels, you're looking at $36. Now, we get amazingly inexpensive test costs, but your MD should be able to get them for about the same price.

If those are elevated, it dramatically increases the risk of heart attack or stroke for anybody, but particularly in women. And one of the reasons I believe they don't run these tests is because there's no drug to treat them. When my high sensitivity C-reactive protein was through the roof, my doctor didn't even care. I had to treat it myself. And I've fortunately become very successful at treating high sensitivity CRP.

Natural ways to lower lipoprotein A 4:18

So these should be done on anyone and everyone, particularly if there is a history of cardiovascular disease in the family. But the reason the doctors don't run it is statins, the drugs that are used to lower lipoproteins, are not effective on lipoprotein A. There is currently no drug approved for that. Fortunately, doing some research, I found that there are multiple, several natural substances that have been proven to lower lipoprotein A. So I put those into use all the time. Some of them are very common like L-carnitine.

coenzyme Q10, and then there's a Chinese formula called shui jia kong, which is largely composed of my favorite Chinese herb, dan shen, or salvia milta risola, which has amazing cardiovascular qualities. But other things that have been shown to be somewhat effective are pectins, like apple pectin. We love pectisol because studies show it also lowers breast and bowel cancers, and lowers inflammatory cytokine levels. Also ginkgo biloba, flaxseed, red wine, resveratrol, which probably it's the resveratrol and the red wine that's doing it, and the curcuminoids, which are chemicals that are found in turmeric.

So those all have been proven to lower lipoprotein A. And again, the ones I mentioned first are the most effective. So if you haven't been tested, And you have particularly a family history. Anybody in your, in your family has ever had a heart attack or stroke, push your doctor to get these tests. You can also order them online yourself, although they're a little more expensive if you order them yourself.

Testing recommendations and closing 6:07

And then what do you do with the findings? So I would recommend you find a good functional doctor, um, and ask them about these exams. So be happy, be healthy, be heart attack free. And thanks for joining me. Bye bye. Thank you for joining me on real clarity and balance can begin. Visit AlamedaAcupuncture.com. That's AlamedaAcupuncture.com to learn more, explore our supplements, or book a call. We'd love to hear from you.