Attia Says Heart Disease Starts at Birth
Autopsies of young people killed in Iraq and Afghanistan found it already taking hold at ages 18 to 20.
Andrew Huberman · Exercise, Nutrition, Hormones for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Peter AttiaPeter Attia, a physician focused on longevity, argues that heart disease starts at birth. In his view, the aim is to keep a blood measure called ApoB close to the level at birth.
ApoB is the total concentration of the main artery clogging particles, chiefly LDL and a related type called VLDL. Attia treats that particle count, rather than cholesterol alone, as what matters.
The evidence comes from autopsies performed after wars. The work started with people killed in Vietnam during the seventies, and was repeated in the early 2000s on mostly young men, and some young women, killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those later exams showed cardiovascular disease already taking hold at ages 18, 19, and 20. Those young people were still 40 or 50 years from dying of it, Attia says, but the disease cannot really develop until ApoB crosses a threshold that most people reach in their teens.
Questions people ask
What exactly does ApoB measure?
ApoB is a count of artery clogging particles in the blood, mainly LDL and a related type called VLDL. Each such particle carries one ApoB protein, so the result reflects how many particles are present, not only how much cholesterol they contain.
Why do these findings come from wartime autopsies?
Young, otherwise healthy service members who die of injuries offer a rare chance to examine arteries that would not otherwise be studied. Because the group is young, any early artery change stands out clearly against the expectation of clean vessels.