08/25/2020
One of the biggest risk factors for severe COVID is cardiovascular disease. In other words, people who have documented atherosclerotic disease of their arteries, or have experienced a complication of atherosclerotic plaque, such as a heart attack or stroke, are at higher risk of death from COVID. We now know that plaques exist silently for years to decades before they become potentially life-threatening. They can be visualized with 3-D imaging such as ultrasound or CT scanning. Even earlier, we can measure factors in the blood that reveal if your metabolism is favorable for plaque development. LDL cholesterol is one of these factors, but it is only one piece of this complex puzzle, and it doesn’t tell the whole story. We’ve all known people who eat a healthy diet and have ‘perfect’ cholesterol who go on to have heart disease anyway. My passion is optimal health and disease prevention. Given my personal medical history, and strong family history of heart disease and stroke, I have multiple blood tests on a regular basis to make sure I’m reducing risk as much as possible. Test, don’t guess.
Colorado Mountain Medical’s Predictive Health program helps individuals predict their risks for disease and personalize a health program.
