Skip to Navigation Skip to Content Skip to Search Skip to Site Map Menu
Search

Tag Archives: Professor McCormick

The little rascal – high heart disease risk

Oil droplets in water.

Oil droplets in water: lipids and water don’t mix.

We all know that eating too much bad food and not exercising puts us at risk of cardiovascular disease. But did you know there is another risk factor that increases the risk of heart disease in more than 1 in 5 people, that is determined by a person’s genetics, doesn’t respond to diet or exercise, and currently has no treatment?

This risk factor is a high level of lipoprotein(a) in the blood.

Lipoproteins are packages for carrying lipids (a fancy word for fats and oils) in the blood. Lipids do not mix well with water or blood, therefore they have to be packaged up with special proteins so they can be moved in the blood stream around the body. Continue reading