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French Canadian genetic disorder can cause killer cholesterol levels in even the healthiest person
By Lindsay Tice, Sun Journal
Posted Feb. 05, 2012, at 10:31 a.m.
Last modified Feb. 05, 2012, at 3:48 p.m.
Carl Ouellette had just turned 34 when he had a heart attack.
...
Doctors discovered the Lewiston man had seven blockages in three main arteries. Ouellette underwent a quintuple bypass.
His heart looked like it belonged to an 80-year-old.
?At the time, in my mind, I?m thinking, ?This is not happening to me,?? Ouellette said. ?But it did.?
Doctors like to see cholesterol levels in the 100s. Over 240 is considered high.
Ouellette?s was 425.
He has familial hypercholesterolemia, known as FH, a genetic disorder that causes extremely high cholesterol levels at an extremely young age.
...
FH families are a rarity in most of America. Not so in Lewiston-Auburn.
FH is found most often in people of Native American or French Canadian descent. In America, experts say, about 1 in every 300 to 500 people has the disorder. Dervilla McCann, a Lewiston cardiologist who has been studying FH for two decades, believes the Lewiston-Auburn area, with its large French Canadian population, has about 10 times the rate of FH as the rest of the country.
That would be 1 in every 30 to 50 people here.
They may not know it. Or, like Ouellette, they may not realize how dangerous it is.
Full text:
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/...esterol-levels-in-even-the-healthiest-person/
By Lindsay Tice, Sun Journal
Posted Feb. 05, 2012, at 10:31 a.m.
Last modified Feb. 05, 2012, at 3:48 p.m.
Carl Ouellette had just turned 34 when he had a heart attack.
...
Doctors discovered the Lewiston man had seven blockages in three main arteries. Ouellette underwent a quintuple bypass.
His heart looked like it belonged to an 80-year-old.
?At the time, in my mind, I?m thinking, ?This is not happening to me,?? Ouellette said. ?But it did.?
Doctors like to see cholesterol levels in the 100s. Over 240 is considered high.
Ouellette?s was 425.
He has familial hypercholesterolemia, known as FH, a genetic disorder that causes extremely high cholesterol levels at an extremely young age.
...
FH families are a rarity in most of America. Not so in Lewiston-Auburn.
FH is found most often in people of Native American or French Canadian descent. In America, experts say, about 1 in every 300 to 500 people has the disorder. Dervilla McCann, a Lewiston cardiologist who has been studying FH for two decades, believes the Lewiston-Auburn area, with its large French Canadian population, has about 10 times the rate of FH as the rest of the country.
That would be 1 in every 30 to 50 people here.
They may not know it. Or, like Ouellette, they may not realize how dangerous it is.
Full text:
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/...esterol-levels-in-even-the-healthiest-person/