If you’re concerned about keeping your heart healthy, there are plenty of steps you can take to that effect, from making dietary changes to taking certain medication. But what about factors that can’t be managed in this way? Based on a new set of recommendations from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, there’s a new twist to monitoring your heart’s health: a genetic test that measures another risk factor that diet and behavior have little effect on.
The organizations now recommend that adults be tested for lipoprotein(a), which can increase the risk of heart disease. According to their announcement of the modified guidelines, one test in adulthood should suffice: “lifestyle changes minimally affect Lp(a) levels, so repeat testing is generally not needed.” As…