Risk Factors You’re Stuck With

Okay, so some things you really ave born with. For instance, researchers have found several genetic abnormalities that can lead to high cholesterol and make lowering your cholesterol through lifestyle changes alone difficult, if not impossible. If this is true for you, you’ll probably need cholesterol-lowering medication. That doesn’t mean you can skip the lifestyle changes, however; the two together work best. The following risk factors fall into the category of things you can’t change.

Genes

About 1 in 100 people can chalk up high cholesterol to a genetic basis called familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL). Although FCHL has been under study for nearly 30 years, many aspects of it remain a mystery. The disease results from defects in the way the body metabolizes lipoproteins; this leads to high total cholesterol, high triglycerides, or both. People with FCHL also have higher levels of small LDL particles—the ones most likely to accumulate in the arteries and cause plaque. If you have FCHL, you’re also more likely to have insulin resistance, which itself is a risk factor for heart attacks.

If you’ve followed the  Plan for 12 weeks and don’t see any improvement in your cholesterol, talk to you doctor about genetic testing and the possibility of medication. Lifestyle changes may not be enough for you.

Other genetic risks include:

HPA-2 Met. This gene variation makes blood stickier and more likely to clot. It may also predispose men to a blood clot in the heart. If you have it, there’s nothing you can do about it—all the more reason to attack the risk factors you cam modify by following them Plan.

Apo-E4, This gene is linked with a higher risk of CHD. If you have it and you eat a heart-healthy diet, your risk of heart disease isn’t increased (unless you drink too much or smoke). But if you have the gene and you eat the typical high-fat American diet, your cholesterol levels skyrocket, Alcohol tends to increase cholesterol levels in people with this gene, anc people with the gene who smoke have a sharply increased risk of CHD.

Apo-E2 or apo-£3. Like apo-E4, these genes predispose you to heart disease. And cholesterol levels in people with these genes don’t respond as well to lifestyle changes, But remember, the Live /t Down Plan addresses a wide array of risk factors, so adopting it will still put you ahead of where you are now.

Family History

Even if you have no genetic abnormalities (or don’t know whether you do), you may be at increased risk for CHD if your grandfather, father, or brother developed heart disease before the age of 55, or your grandmother, mother, or sister developed it before the age of 65. Perhaps genetics is to blame for your family history—or simply bad habits like smoking and poor eating. Either way you can lower your own risk by following the  Plan.

Age-and Sex

More men than women develop CHD. And on average, men develop it 10 years before women do, But once women hit menopause, their risk of dying from heart disease equals that of men. In the end, 47 percent of all heart attacks occur in women, Before menopause women usually have total cholesterol levels lower than those