Getting a routine blood tests does not show heart problems in a glaring way. Instead, genetic tests and specific blood tests can detect heart problems by flagging certain indicators. Combining both of these factors is the best way to get an accurate, personalized approach to cardiac healthcare. At Holistic Heart Centers of America, our goal is to provide accessible precision heart care at affordable prices from the comfort of your own home.

 

Many genetic, epigenetic, and blood markers can signal heart disease. Our Heartwell Toolkit will use blood work and genetic markers to detect heart problems by identifying specific biomarkers that your physician can track throughout your journey. These Toolkits give you individualized insight so that we can develop a custom care plan, just for you.

 

The Heartwell Toolkits blood tests focus on the 3 main categories of testing: inflammation, metabolism and lipids. You may be surprised to see that we put lipids last but they are actually a less impactful player than infallamtion and metabolism.

 

Heart Blood Tests for Inflammation

The fact that inflammation is a cause of heart disease is not new. There is a long list of inflammation markers, and many may sound confusing. If one inflammation marker is abnormal but the other is normal, is there a risk? The answer is not simple: tests may identify systemic or local (blood vessel specific) inflammation, and the combination of tests is better than a single test by itself.

 

The first category of the 3 tests that help recognize heart disease involves testing for inflammation. Systemic inflammation can play a significant role in initiating and promoting plaque buildup while local inflammation influences plaque break up (rupture). Tests that may flag inflammation include:

  • High-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP); is produced in the liver and flags systemic inflammation.
  • MPO:flags activation of white blood cells that are infiltratiing blood vessel wall and make plaque more vulnerable (prone to rupture),

If your results are outside of the expected window, your doctor may ask you to make lifestyle changes or start a new medication. The levels for each test that may indicate inflammation are:

  • High-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP): Less than 2.0 mg/L is considered normal; less thna 1.0 mg/dl is optimal.
  • MPO: Less than 470 pmol/L is considered normal; less than 250 is optimal.

Heart Blood Tests for Metabolism

A Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP) is a common blood test that can help providers understand how your body balances chemicals and metabolizes the food you eat. A CMP will look for flags for a variety of different conditions. This test will look at:

  • Your liver and kidney health.
  • Your blood sugar levels.
  • The acid and base balance in your blood.
  • Your fluid and electrolyte balance.

For heart concerns, a CMP can indicate issues related to high blood pressure, which is a red flag for certain cardiac conditions, and kidney health. At the Holistic Heart Centers, we routinely add uric acid and GGT as well as liver fibrosis testing (FIB-4), to the CMP for comprehensive evaluation. We also check markers of insulin resistance.

 

Heart Blood Tests for Lipid Balance

Lipids-tests such as total cholesterol, low-density cholesterol (LDL), high-density cholesterol (HDL), troglycerides (TG)-are common in evaluation for heart health and wellness. Like heart blood tests for inflammation, these blood tests can alert us to the risk of developingclog arteries. Some of the tests on a cholesterol panel may include:

  • Total cholesterol.
  • Triglycerides.
  • High-density lipoprotein (HDL or the “good” cholesterol), which helps to bring cholesterol from our cells back to the liver for recycling.
  • Low-density lipoprotein (LDL or the “bad” cholesterol), which is one of the main lipids that can cause a build up in arteries.

In the past few decades, research idenditfied that how cholesterol is packaged and carried in the blood, in the form of particles, called “apolipoporteins”, is actually more relevant than the concentration of cholesterol itself. The particles are apolipoprotein B (ApoB), reflecting a pool of all “bad” cholesterols (of which LDL is the major culprit), and apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1), related to HDL.

 

The goal level for each of our patients depends on their clinical situation.

 

The levels that we may consider optimal in most circumstances are:

  • Total cholesterol: 150 to 170 mg/dL.
  • LDL or bad cholesterol: less than100 mg/dL (and less than70 mg/dL if you have diabetes or have a high risk of heart disease).
  • HDL or good cholesterol: 50-60 mg/dL.
  • Triglycerides: Less than 100mg/dL, best if double-digits.
  • Apo B <60 mg/dl; as low as possible if higher risk.
  • ApoA1>160 mg/dl.

If you want to know more about your heart health, you may need to venture further than a routine blood panel. Blood testing for the assesment of individual risk of heart disease opens an opportunity to personalize a powerful and actionable care plan.

 

If you’re tired of the general, population-based advice that most doctors give out, contact us for the best tests to check for heart problems. We offer at-home access to customized, personal cardiac care.