User: sburris
Time: 08-26-2013 14:17 Product: INIBrd PubDate: 08-28-2013
Zone: Special
Edition: 1 Page: TOADVFOLIO-B Color: C K Y M
AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2013 •
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Greens vs. genes
Diet and exercise can’t always trump ancestry By Angela Parker For Custom Publications
Familial hypercholesterolemia:
PHOTOS: LESLE LANE
What is it?
The Solero family works — and plays — together as part of their heart-healthy lifestyle.
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ndi Solero was just 23 years old when her father, an anesthesiologist, predicted that her husband, Dan, would have a heart attack by the time he was 40. Naturally, that assertion was not well received. “I thought, ‘How dare you? I don’t want to hear that.’ So I ignored it but kind of tucked it away,” Solero said. Her father’s prediction was not arbitrary, but was based on the younger man’s high cholesterol. “Dan turned 40 in January 2012, so I was thinking about what my dad said and wondering if it was going to happen,” Andi said. “On July 18, Dan came to me and said, ‘I don’t feel well. My jaw Solero hurts. Will you take me to PromptMed?’” As the pair drove to the medical clinic, Andi began to recognize that her husband’s pain was more significant than an achy jaw. So she drove not to the clinic but to the emergency department of the local hospital. “I tell my friends he didn’t have a ‘TV heart attack,’” Andi said. “He wasn’t grabbing his arm, short of breath. It wasn’t until he was in the ambulance that the really bad chest pain started.” Testing revealed that Dan’s left anterior descending artery was 100 percent blocked; a secondary artery was 90 percent blocked. He was transferred to
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Indianapolis, where a surgeon inserted two stents. “He said Dan was a walking time bomb, that it was a ‘widow maker’ and if I’d waited, he would have died,” Andi said. “He said most people in that case say they don’t feel well, go lie down and die in their sleep.”
All the right moves
Dan had long known he had high cholesterol. He’d even taken steps to counteract it, running regularly, eating a fairly heart-healthy diet and taking cholesterollowering medications. A heart scan performed in April indicated he should pursue additional testing and care, which he did, but Dan’s heart attack occurred before the results were available. And though Dan had been on multiple statin therapies from the time he was 30, they simply hadn’t worked. At a followup appointment, Dan was diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia, a hereditary condition that doesn’t always respond to cholesterol-lowering medications.
What now?
In the year since Dan’s heart attack, the Soleros have improved their eating habits, becoming largely vegetarian. Even their two children, Ty, 12, and Carlee, 8, eat better to promote heart health. Dan and Andi had their kids’ cholesterol tested, too. Carlee’s was normal, but she’ll be tested later to determine whether she carries a gene that could pass to her children. Ty’s test results told a different story. Where a normal result is less than 200, his topped 300. “I had just seen my husband have a heart attack and nearly die,” Andi said. “I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh. My son has the same problem. I do not want to see him have a heart attack at 40 years old.’” Ty’s favorite foods — bacon and milk — can’t be considered healthy. He has since switched to soy milk and eats packed lunches. For breakfast he drinks veggie smoothies. “His numbers have come down remarkably well, but he still has to take Lipitor and go to a cholesterol clinic every three months,” Andi said. Meanwhile, Dan’s most recent checkup revealed a cholesterol level below 200 for
Dan Solero and his son, Ty, both have familial hypercholesterolemia, or FH, one of the most common life-threatening genetic disorders. Though it affects about one in 500 people, only 20 percent of cases in the U.S. are estimated to have been diagnosed. Most people who have the disorder exhibit few symptoms until they have a heart attack. The body needs and continually manufactures its own cholesterol. But individuals with FH can’t “recycle” the cholesterol their livers produce, so the level in their bloodstream remains high. Over time, the excess cholesterol can cause blockages in the arteries of the heart and brain. Parents, brothers, sisters and children of people with FH all have a 50 percent chance of having the condition, too. Typically, relatives show a pattern of very high cholesterol, early heart disease and heart attacks from as early on as their 20s. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children with a family history of early heart attacks or heart disease — that is, before age 55 in men and age 65 in women — should have their first cholesterol test after age 2 and before age 10. When the condition is detected early, individuals can reduce their risk of heart disease to more normal levels. Source: The FH Foundation
the first time ever. “He had some minor damage in the very bottom of his heart, but it’s almost at 100 percent functioning, which is pretty amazing given the severity of his heart attack,” Andi said. “I’m reminded every day of the blessings I have ... that I listened to my dad and that Dan came to me when he didn’t feel good instead of going to lie down.” ●