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OPINION

Get Tested for Genetic Cholesterol Condition

Dr. Mehmet Oz, M.D. and Dr. Mike Roizen, M.D. By Thursday, 08 December 2016 03:02 PM EST Current | Bio | Archive

Members of the punk-rock band Dropdead have played with crust-punk and grind-core bands such as Exploding Corpse Action and Conniption. (We don't make this stuff up, folks.)

But because they're in an underground music scene, they're easy to miss.

If you have familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) — a genetic condition that causes high levels of bad LDL cholesterol 400 mg/dL or higher — and don't deal with it, you could develop a health conniption that sounds like the name of a headbanger band.

The problem is that FH is an underground condition.

In the U.S. alone, more than 1.3 million people have this disease, yet only 10 percent know it.

By age 50, men with FH have a 50 percent higher chance of heart attack (more than 30 percent drop dead), and by age 60 women have a 30 percent higher risk than folks without the condition.

Fortunately, researchers from Queen Mary University of London may have a diagnostic solution: Both child and parents, whether or not they're aware of a family risk, should be screened for FH when the 1- to-2-year-old gets vaccinated (84 percent of British families are now doing this).

Research shows that about one in every 270 kids has FH, and every child identified with the disorder will have at least one parent who's passed down the gene.

So ask your doctor about the test when you take a child to the pediatrician.

Or if your kids are older, consider a family screening, especially if you have any relative who had a heart attack in their 50s or younger.
 

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Dr-Oz
By age 50, men with familial hypercholesterolemia have a 50 percent higher chance of heart attack, and by age 60 women have a 30 percent higher risk than folks without the condition.
familial hypercholesterolemia, heart attack, Dr. Oz
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2016-02-08
Thursday, 08 December 2016 03:02 PM
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