Welcome to Living Healthy Chicago.
I'm Jane Monzures.
We wanna kick off today's show talking about heart health.
A big part of it has to do with keeping
your cholesterol under control.
But for some people, like this next woman,
that management can be especially
tough because of genetic factors.
So let's learn how she got a handle on her numbers.
Watching Patti Niwa play with her grandkids,
you wouldn't realize that her journey
to health has been a long one.
- You wanna color, too, you want pink?
- [Jane] It all began in her early 20s.
- I was told that I had these really high numbers.
My LDL levels, my cholesterol, the numbers didn't go down.
- [Jane] Her doctors put her on medication,
but over the years, weren't seeing results.
Eventually, things became more serious.
- At the age of 47, I had my first cardiac event
and was told that I needed a bypass.
And so those things were extremely frightening,
and caused a lot of stress for me.
Further investigation by her doctors
led to a diagnosis of a genetic issue.
- Hi, Miss Niwa.
Familial hypercholesterolemia, it's a genetic, inherited
condition that affects about 10% of the population.
And it is characterized by abnormally high levels
of bad cholesterol, otherwise known as LDL cholesterol.
Having high levels of the LDL cholesterol
causes inflammation and injury to the vessel wall
that can lead to premature coronary artery disease
and heart attacks and strokes.
This type of familial hypercholesterolemial
high cholesterol, unlike the traditional high cholesterol,
does not respond with dietary changes or modification.
- [Jane] So Patti's medical team suggested another approach.
- [Martine] Hello, can I come in?
- At that point, I was evaluated for the apheresis.
Seeing if it would be something
that ultimately could work for me.
- Apheresis is a procedure in which we remove blood
from patients, and we separate the blood
by its components, take away a portion of,
or a blood component that may not
be desirable to remain in the patient.
Apheresis can be used to treat multiple conditions.
In the case of Mrs. Niwa, we are removing
particularly lipids, fats, that are in the blood,
in the plasma, that are harming
her veins and arteries and heart.
- It can be a life-saving therapy for some patients,
and it does lower the cholesterol by about 60 to 80%.
For her, lowering the LDL cholesterol
is really beneficial to try to prevent further events.
- She has a genetic condition, it programs her body
to produce more LDL, and she comes once a week
because her body starts producing this again.
- It is all about staying as healthy as I possibly can.
I'm doin' this for not only myself, my health,
but also with my family in mind.
- In her case, this treatment is life-saving.
There is no other option for her
to get that LDL down in her bloodstream.
- [Jane] Patti says the weekly treatments have been made
much easier by the unwavering support of her family.
- My family is my life, and that keeps me going.
The support of my family has been
unwavering throughout this whole thing.
- [Jane] While Patti will have to manage
her cholesterol levels for the rest of her life,
she hopes her story will raise awareness
and encourage others who are struggling
with cholesterol to get the help they need.
- It needs to be taken seriously and treated.
And I think that you have to be strong,
and know that there's help.
It's not going to be easy, but there's help.
Stay positive, hope to save my heart for as long as I can.
Knowing that anything can happen, I do the best I can.
Turn around? Woo!