(NaturalHealth365) It’s the medical test that could save your life, but has your doctor performed it?  NMR Lipoprotein – a blood test that directly measures the amount of LDL circulating in the body – is more efficient at determining your risk of cardiovascular disease than what 90 percent of doctors still look at.

Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, still ahead of cancer, takes the lives of over 600,000 Americans each year – but could largely be prevented, or at least managed way better, with this simple test.  You may be wondering how – right?

Because it looks at how cholesterol is transported through the body (not necessarily just the blood), but how it interacts with the endothelium that lines the arteries.  This test could be the tool used to spark a change in your lifestyle habits.

How can I get the NMR lipoprotein medical test now and prevent the leading cause of death?

While your doctor may not be aware of the test, he or she can easily order via most major lab companies. In addition, NMR lipoprotein testing is generally covered by insurance.

By the way, if you experience difficulty having a provider order the test, it can be obtained – on your own behalf – online, as well.  And, please keep in mind, one medical test is not the only thing you need to avoid heart disease.  But, in many cases, it’s a good place to start.

Should I be eating fatty foods or not?

“The mantra that saturated fat must be removed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease has dominated dietary advice and guidelines for almost four decades. Yet scientific evidence shows that this advice has, paradoxically, increased our cardiovascular risks.

Furthermore, the government’s obsession with levels of total cholesterol, which has led to the over-medication of millions of people with statins, has diverted our attention from the more egregious risk factor of atherogenic dyslipidaemia.” – Aseem Malhotra, interventional cardiology specialist registrar, Croydon University Hospital, London

It was once believed that eating saturated fats was going to put your risk of developing cardiovascular disease through the roof, but a recent British Medical Journal frankly states above, “saturated fat is not the issue.”

We have long-known these health-promoting foods help stave off certain diseases, but until recently, research literature focused on a very immature and short-sighted approach to clinically evaluating the role cholesterol plays in cardiovascular disease development.

I tell patients, “high cholesterol does not cause cardiovascular disease, we need cholesterol to live, to thrive. It’s what happens to cholesterol particles in the body that can cause them to affect us negatively.” A wide variety of fats are necessary for the body to manufacture cholesterol, a necessary component of neuro-hormonal synthesis and protection, immune and cardiovascular health.

The crucial point is that we need an ideal ratio of fats that are unoxidized to stay healthy and prevent disease.

To maintain ideal cholesterol levels:

• Increase physical activity during the day while focusing on regular, restful sleep at night.
• Avoid excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates, sugars, flours and seed oils.
• Improve gut health because maintaining healthy flora reduces whole-body inflammation and helps control insulin-resistance.

Remember, cardiovascular disease depends on many factors such as genetics, lifestyle activity, environmental pollution and overall diet. Researchers and clinicians are always taking a closer look at how these variables affect one another in an integrative fashion.

About the author: Christine M. Dionese L.Ac, MSTOM is an integrative health expert, medical journalist and food writer. She’s dedicated her career to helping others understand the science of happiness and its powerful effects on everyday human health. Christine practices, writes and speaks on environmental functional medicine, epigenetics, food therapy and sustainable living.

Sources for this article include:

Lipid.org
NIH.gov
NIH.gov
BMJ.com