EmpowHer:
Doctor, you just mentioned LDL or the bad cholesterol, let’s discuss the C-reactive protein. I understand that LDL is the bad cholesterol but how does C-reactive protein fit into the overall heart health?
Dr. Nieca Goldberg:
C-reactive protein is an additional marker that we evaluate for women who appear to have risk for heart disease without any of the obvious risk factors like diabetes or high cholesterol or high blood pressure , being overweight, smoking or lack of exercise.
Sometimes there are women who either have heart disease without an obvious reason or have a family history where the risk for the heart disease is unknown. So what we do is measure additional factors, one of which is the C-reactive protein that measures inflammation.
Inflammation is now emerging, chronic levels of inflammation are now emerging as a risk marker for heart disease .
