There is broad awareness that excessively high cholesterol levels increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and is dangerous to overall health. Unfortunately, few of us know that the usual laboratory tests (total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides) used to determine your risk level provide a statistical evaluation that in some cases may actually grossly underestimate or even over-estimate the risk of heart disease.

In fact, these tests often show normal or even low cholesterol readings for a large percentage of those suffering from heart disease. Likewise, some people with high cholesterol experience much less heart disease than those with normal readings. We refer to this as the “French paradox” which is partly related to an individual’s diet and lifestyle.

We now know that the number of small particles of cholesterol is a crucial factor in the aging process of arteries. This is because small particles oxidize more readily and thus increase the risk of heart disease. HDL, often referred to as “good cholesterol” is less dangerous than LDL because the particles are larger and less prone to oxidize.

Standard tests for cholesterol amalgamate seven subclasses of LDL, two of which are larger and five of which are small enough to be problematic. Since LDL is measured by the weight of these particles without regard to their specific size, their number and effect on arterial health can be grossly underestimated.

Crea-Med goes beyond the conventional approach and offers a range of more sophisticated tests to accurately determine risk. Our process can be broken down into four steps:

• determine the phenotype: identify and measure the 14 lipoproteins and prescribe treatment if necessary
• determine the genotype to understand genetic causes and individual characteristics
• minimize risk by offering personalized nutrition counseling and therapy
• monitor the client’s condition with periodic evaluations

The results of this process have a direct impact on treatment and give us a better understand of how environmental and nutritional (nutrigenomics) factors play a role in your health profile.

For example, while the Mediterranean diet is generally recommended to reduce the risk of heart disease since nearly 25% of Caucasians are carriers of the APOE4 gene, those individuals will not benefit from this diet and in fact may be find themselves at greater risk because the metabolism of these particular individuals transforms olive oil into an oxidized byproduct that is detrimental to arterial health.

We believe that by keeping up with the latest scientific developments we are able to offer our clients the best in individualized treatment and nutritional guidance with respect to cardiovascular health.