Greetings all!
My family, dad, brother, sister, all had very early cardiac disease. Why? Likely they had elevated Lipoprotein(a). That’s genetic. It was passed on to me and I passed it on. When I returned to my cardiologist after many years and with this new knowledge about Lp(a), he chose to treat me aggressively with a statin as if I already had cardiac disease as well as diabetes, which I did not. Such individuals, according to the latest guidelines of the American Diabetes Association, should achieve an LDL below 55. My cardiologist said he had two statin choices for me: Atorvastatin and Crestor (Rosuvastatin).
After 8 weeks on 20 mg. of Crestor my LDL was comfortably below 55, more in keeping with the LDL of newborns. My take away is that main stream medicine is still in the dark ages in their practice of under treating LDL. An LDL under 100 ( current guidelines) for those who have not had a heart attack, stroke, or calcification of their aortic valve is just “not” good enough.
I will add that heart disease kills more people in the U.S. than all cancers combined. By the way, years ago, very high LDL numbers were considered acceptable.
Primary care doctors need to catch up with today’s reality.
Hope this opinion is helpful. Hope more readers explore statins. Please be reminded that elevated lipoprotein(a) alone will not budge with improved lifestyle (diet, exercise).
For now, the best way to address that risk factor: elevated Lp( a) is to reduce LDL aggressively. Consider LDL a poison.
In the U.S., only .3 percent of people are tested for Lp(a), while 20% of people have elevated numbers. Think about that.
Best to all!
LeafLeaf