Every now and then the topic of trimethylamine N-oxide, or TMAO, is extracted from its watery grave by some “cardiovascular expert” in efforts to convince us that this is something to worry about. So here’s the rundown on TMAO…get ready…
Quite frequently, people will make claims that their preferred dietary religion pattern is guaranteed to make you age in reverse, render you immune from heart disease, and restore peace in the Middle East. And one of these diets is called…
In the latest installment of “Cardiovascular Risk Calculators Belong in the Trash Can,” THIS STUDY came out looking at the relationship between various Risk Calculators and coronary plaque (measured by CAC and CCTA). You all are familiar with the “Got…
Since Captain Planet is unlikely to be the hero we need for saving the world from Heart Disease (as we learned from last week’s post), perhaps we ought to turn our attention to another early 1990s classic cartoon character…Darkwing Duck!…
Although the well-known autosomal dominant gene mutations for Familial Hypercholesterolemia are LDLR, APOB, and PCSK9, there are lesser-known recessive mutations that can result in elevated cholesterol levels. One of these recessive gene mutations is LDLRAP1, but THIS ARTICLE describes a…
I often say, “I do all the same things I did when I was 20… I’m just worse at them and I hurt more afterwards.” But given that people with the highest cardiorespiratory fitness tend to have the lowest risk…
France has contributed many luminaries to science, including Pascal and Descartes, but maybe Metformin, a glucose-lowering medication taken by millions of people, deserves a place on this proverbial intellectual Mont Blanc as well. Derived from the French lilac, Metformin continues…
Healthcare professionals in metabolic clinics have all been subject to the ironic situations in which people with type 2 diabetes INSIST that drinking Diet Soda will instantly kill them and simultaneously plunge the world into nuclear conflict. Meanwhile, their Continuous…
The punch line to the joke, “Why did the PCSK9 inhibitor not work?” is usually, “Because the patient never took it!” But occasionally, people will get a less-than-expected response in LDL-C lowering to PCSK9 inhibitors. This is quite unusual, but…
PCSK9 is well-known for its role in cholesterol homeostasis, and most are aware that PCSK9 targets the LDL receptor for lysosomal degradation. Given that the LDL receptor in the liver is what clears the majority of ApoB cholesterol-laden particles from…
