Nick Norwitz MD PhD@nicknorwitz
🚨New Paper: "Seven Years of 700 Cholesterol Without Coronary Atherosclerosis: A Lean Mass Hyper-Responder Case Report"
Link: doi.org/10.3390/diseas…
For the past 7 years, I’ve been running what is essentially a natural experiment in cholesterol and heart health.
During that time, I’ve largely lived with:
👉Total cholesterol around 700 mg/dl
👉LDL cholesterol between 500–600 mg/dL
I recently underwent advanced coronary CT angiography imaging with AI-guided analysis. This is not a CAC. It measures all plaque (soft + calcified), with expert interpretation and AI-guided analysis capable of quantifying plaque down to the cubic millimeter (mm3).
Now, to address the obvious question:
Am I too young for plaque?
In brief: No.
The clearest comparison is individuals with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, who often have similarly extreme LDL/ApoB levels and can develop advanced plaque as toddlers, and even heart attacks as early as age 8.
Also, nutrition influencers in their 30s have publicly shared quantified plaque scores from these same imaging technologies. In one recent case, a plant-based influencer in his thirties was found to have 61.3 mm³ of plaque despite having far lower lifetime LDL exposure. (He can identify himself if he so chooses.)
My case also isn’t a one-off.
There are many individuals like me, including older individuals with similar LDL-C and ApoB without any plaque.
The difference is that I’m an unusually well-characterized subject, with extensive metabolic data and health markers tracked over time. You can learn more at the newsletter or open-access paper, linked above.
The science of heart health is not settled. And cholesterol is not a simple story.
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🚨 If you want to learn more, I'll include more learning resources below 👇
