The first symptom of heart disease is often dropping dead suddenly. Are you at risk for this?
Conventional tests such as resting electrocardiograms or cholesterol levels do not give a complete picture of your risk for dropping dead and can be normal immediately prior to a heart attack or sudden death.
Even stress tests do not reliably detect the early buildup of atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries that cause heart attack and sudden death.
I have written extensively about using a CT scan to detect calcium in the arteries to the heart to detect those at risk of heart attack and sudden death. Check the coronary calcium page for links to all the relevant posts.
If you’d like to read about the mechanisms of atherosclerosis or fatty plaque build up and how statins work to prevent this beyond their effect on lower cholesterol check out my post entitled “Statin Drugs Have Benefits Beyond Cholesterol Lowering.”
Posts About Using Carotid ultrasound to detect those at risk of heart attack/stroke and sudden death.
