I did a video recently titled "Why blame LDL?" Now, it was very well received. It
went back and, basically, discovered some basics on something that you'll hear
many times in many other videos on this channel. The vast majority of the
medical community is totally focused on LDL or bad cholesterol and they tend to
forget about things like cardiovascular inflammation, which for most of us is far
more important. But I say most of us - there are about 60 to 80 people
that will view this channel today, for whom LDL is more important. Again,
thirteen to fifteen thousand views but there's - there's a sub population that
have FH (Familial Hypercholesterolemia) For those, LDL is
very, very important and there's some discussion about LDL. Actually, it started
a few weeks before I started doing my series on FH. For example, Tam Chin
mentioned some problems that he was having and he mentioned familial
hypercholesterolemia isn't helping but so far research doesn't seem to indicate
FH by itself is problematic. Not sure where you got that. I think it can be
very problematic. John responded: FH is brutal. It trumps most risk factors. It
runs in my family. Then, as you go down further there was an
interesting comment from a viewer named Susan Bolton. She said "I share my many
videos on statins and inflammation with my family. Most don't want to hear it. I
have familial hypercholesterolemia at age 34. My cholesterol was discovered to
be 600. I had coronary artery disease so they did bypass surgery and that's
something that you'll hear quite a bit. Extremely high LDL levels and cardiac
events in their 30s for people with homozygous. So this is just a
heterozygous - heterozygous means you got ripped from one parent but not the
other. Homozygous means you got a dose from both parents.
Those people that have homozygous can have a heart attack or other coronary
events in their 20s or even teens. I did a video on heterozygous and homozygous
FH just recently. Now, let's go back to the FH foundation site and I wanted to
cover a couple of things. There was another viewer that asked me "Should I
get checked for FH? And if so, how?" So he went on to say, by the way, I think he
said his LDL was like 200 and something. So you can imagine my answer:
Yes, you obviously clearly need to be checked out. You go to the FH site and
you can - you can find it just by googling the FH foundation.org. Let me show you
that on this video real quick. The FH foundation.org - this will bring up to the
homepage and right here, they've got a look at some nice videos - some real quick
ones and I'm going to show you a video on a conference that they had in 2017 in
just a minute. But, before I do, do you have FH? It's a very nice view of what's -
what to look for and I'll cover that. Do I have FH? Yes, well then you need to get
- you need to get your family tested; you need to find a lipid specialist and
lifestyle changes; and they go into some detail on each of those on how you can
get those done. Now, I don't know what do I do to find out if I have FH. First of
all, what is FH? Familial Hypercholesterolemia (F+H=)
Well, let's go on down here. Family history: Early heart disease - again 20s
and 30s like I mentioned earlier. If you have that, yes, you need to - you need to
investigate further. No, I don't have that. I don't have a family history with early
heart disease. How about untreated cholesterol -
untreated cholesterol over 190? Yes, again, you need to find out more about what's
going on with you because you may have it. No. How about an immediate family
with familial hypercholesterolemia? Yes, again, you need to find out. 1 in 250
people have FH. Some would say one in 200 have FH. So, again, a lot of - a lot of focus
needs to be generated around this disease or cluster of diseases because
we're just not getting it. The American College of Cardiology, for
example, says 11 year old kids should be tested for cholesterol. Pediatricians are
not doing it and they're not doing it because they don't want to draw blood.
They don't want to put the patient through that and they're thinking - Well,
you know - kids don't have cholesterol problems. Well, that's the time to find it
out. Especially at someone with homozygous FH - really needs to be treated
earlier. Someone with FH in their 50s that has a high cholesterol is not
exactly like someone who someone who has a high cholesterol but doesn't have FH
because the FH patient has had it since birth - very high levels. Now, let's go back.
Let's take a look at this community. I mentioned that I would cover the - the
Global Summit 2017. Before I do, I'll just give you a couple of things to look for.
For example, in one - in one clip, they're saying we
found a phenotypic - We're finding a lot of people with phenotypic FH but we're
not finding anything. It's a genetics researcher and what he
means about phenotypic is the body. They're finding tests that indicate very
high cholesterol but when they go in and they look at the genetic test, they're
not finding all the usual or any of the usual FH genetics. Again, when you think
about what I said earlier, that becomes clear why if there are close to 2,000
genetic variations, already, that have been discovered. Then, there are several
others probably that we haven't seen yet and I've actually had a patient just
like that. We did all of the usual suspects
they they still didn't show up for her. But she clearly had FH. There's another
series of clips that talks about women and FH - you know, that's like a very
deadly, frustrating, triumvirate. Right now, women are not often recognized when they
have chest pain and potential heart attack. FH is usually not considered
early on in the diagnosis and you put them together: women with FH, as I
mentioned before typically will go to - go in with chest pain and - and be told "Well,
they have anxiety or stress.." So, again, there's a lot of work we need to do, in
terms of showing what's going on and making doctors aware and making patients
aware. (Playing Global Summit Video) I want to welcome you all to the 2017 FH Global Summit.
It's amazing to look around at this room of incredible brainpower and dedication.
FH affects every race and every ethnicity and there are subpopulations
within FH who need to be studied more rigorously and require even more
specific specialized care and there must be targeted research as we have just
earned relative to FH; on the women with the highest risks and the burdens of
disease. What we must do as a group: investigate, educate, advocate and
legislate. We probably still think it's a man's disease but, as she outlined today,
its number one killer of women and the number one killer of men. This is a
powerful summit and it's a great example of what we should all ascribe to in
medicine. These summits are I'm - my colleagues and friends announce to them,
still see patients that have an absolute FH Phenotype and they can't find anything. There must be more to discover.
So, there you go. We've got a major risk factor. It kills people, as John said.
It's brutal and the the bad part is that so few people are aware of it, as I
mentioned in the beginning of this chim - of this video between 40 and 80 people
today and everyday will view this channel that have FH. What I didn't
mention was - only between 1 and 10 percent of them will actually know they
have FH. The vast majority of people (90% to 99%) that have FH, don't know it.
So, again it's very important for all of us to be aware of this. To be thinking
about it. If you already know that you don't have FH, that's good.
Congratulations. But what about your friends? Don't allow them to just rely on
their Doc to remember this, because we've already seen that doesn't happen.
Help your doc. Help your friends. Remind them. Make them aware.
Thank you very much.