Heart Health 2025

Since reading Outlive this year, I have been more convinced about the importance of making healthy diet choices. It also got me curious about my heart health, since Dt. Attia talks about several tests he uses to check his patient's heart health, and he recommends the reader to get done. So I followed his advice. During my annual checkup I requested several tests, and the doctor was kinda shocked. She was like... "how come you're asking me this?". She said I was more on top of my health than most doctors she knows. Cool - I'll take it!

I got her to do a CT Angiogram calcium test. This is a test where they try to visualize your coronary arteries with a device that is tuned to detect calcium. Calcium is a proxy for how much plaque is built up inside your arteries. I also ordered an Lp(a) test (el-pee-little-ay). Outlive suggests this only needs to be done once in your life, since it indicates the presence of a genetic combination that is much more likely to lead to heart disease. At the same time, I wanted to check on my vitamin levels. I also ordered a colonoscopy before the recommended age. Why not? It can detect and remove polyps early.

Luckily all my blood work came back okay. There was one concerning number, though. My LDL was elevated from last reading, while HDL stayed about the same. My ratio increased to 2. I'm not sure why, since I've been eating well and exercising. So she told me to come back and redo the labs in a few weeks. In the meantime, I started taking a dietary supplement of red yeast rice, which my doctor said can help with cholesterol.

How's your heart health? Is this year a good year to do a few extra tests?