Heart disease rarely arrives with a bang. It doesn’t send warnings. No flashing lights. Just a slow, quiet build-up in the shadows of your arteries. By the time symptoms speak up, the damage has already settled in.
So, how do you catch something that prefers to sneak?
Atherosclerosis Doesn’t Care If You Feel Fine
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: the earliest stage of heart disease begins when cholesterol particles slip into the artery walls. No pain. No pressure. Just… presence. And over time, presence becomes plaque.
But here’s the thing: you don’t need to have high blood pressure, be overweight, or even feel unwell for this to happen. All it takes is one culprit, cholesterol in the wrong place.
And that’s often carried in by one specific kind of particle: those containing apolipoprotein B, or ApoB.
What You Can’t See Might Be the Most Dangerous
Standard blood tests don’t always catch early risk. Total cholesterol and LDL? Helpful, but incomplete.
ApoB gives you a deeper look. It counts the number of particles capable of depositing cholesterol into your arteries, not just how much cholesterol is floating around.
- High ApoB = more delivery trucks
- More trucks = more opportunities for plaque
It’s not about how much. It’s about how many.
Catch It Early, Change the Story
Most people discover heart disease after a scare. A heart attack. A scan. A hospital bed. But it doesn’t have to go that way.
Testing early, even in childhood, if there’s a family history, can help reveal risks before they take root. Especially if someone in the family has a genetic condition like familial hypercholesterolemia. In those cases, heart attacks can happen frighteningly young.
And here’s the thing: when caught early, the path can be changed.
Lifestyle. Nutrition. Movement. Sometimes medication. You don’t have to wait until you’re “sick enough” to act.
What Should You Do Now?
Don’t settle for the surface-level numbers. Heart disease doesn’t knock, it seeps in. The sooner you shine a light on it, the better your chances of keeping it out.
