Tiffany Di Pietro explains why Lp(a), a genetically determined form of bad cholesterol, matters for heart health. Unlike regular cholesterol, diet and exercise can't lower it, so she urges you to ask your doctor for an Lp(a) test at least once to catch high levels early.
So when you go to your doctor for your annual physical, almost always they check blood, and in that blood test is generally a cholesterol panel. And if your doctor's not doing a cholesterol panel, you should make sure they do. Doesn't matter how old you are, if you're over the age of 18 especially. So the thing about a general lipid panel is it just shows a few things. It shows your bad cholesterol, which is your LDL, your good cholesterol, which is your HDL, your triglycerides, and your general total cholesterol, which that number can be very high if just the good cholesterol is high. Something that you also would want to ask for is at least once in your lifetime as an adult checking something called an Lp, or lipoprotein a. Lipoprotein a, or Lp, is a variant of bad cholesterol. The key to Lp is you cannot exercise your way out of it, you can't diet your way out of it, it is genetic. So it doesn't matter how healthy you are and how thin you are and how great you are, you can have a totally normal lipid panel and have a significantly elevated Lp still. The importance of this is the Lp is very atherogenic, it's very sticky and can cause a lot of problems. So patients that have high levels of Lp are much more statistically likely to have cardiovascular disease in their life. So if you know that you have that, you can start doing a lot more preventive measures, a lot more preventive studies to check your heart and make sure you're healthy. So ask your doctor to check your Lp.
