Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Can a family history of heart disease be overcome?

---asks Kevin MD.

Well, yes, in most cases. Unfortunately it takes individualized medicine, something low on the agenda of today's medical policy makers. For a primer on individualized medicine and coronary heart disease read these papers.

BTW Dr. Superko, an expert on cardiovascular genetics and co-author of both papers, will be speaking at Tutorials in the Tetons, 35th Annual Update in Cardiovascular Diseases.

1 comment:

Kevin L said...

The papers by Superko were interesting and nicely encapsulate the problem with a singular focus on LDL. What I find troubling in this discussion is the absence of any mention of carbohydrate restriction as a means to ameliorate these other lipid parameters. Low-carb diets are increasingly shown to reduce triglycerides, raise HDL, and favorably affect lipoprotein particle size compared with other diet programs. Do cardiologists know about this, or is the AHA's low-fat philosophy so entrenched as to prevent any discussion of this topic? Before we talk about new drugs to address these issues, it would be nice to at least mention the dietary strategies that we already know will work.