Why Does Peter Attia Check Lipoprotein Little a Once?

Peter Attia calls lipoprotein little a the single most prevalent genetic driver of atherosclerosis. A person is born with the level, and the check only needs to happen once. Somewhere between eight and twelve percent of the population has a high enough lipoprotein little a that it is contributing to atherosclerosis. A guest on Peter Attia's podcast suggested the share could reach twenty percent. Most physicians do not know what lipoprotein little a is. Not checking a twenty-year-old leaves money on the table, since lipoprotein little a can contribute to a lot of the early atherosclerosis seen in people.

Everybody should be screened early in life. How often blood gets tested after the one lipoprotein little a result comes down to the state of interventions. Peter Attia does not think it makes sense to do blood tests for the sake of doing blood tests. A blood test is for the most part a look at a window in time. A few checks over the course of a year help when a level is unsure. If a result does not look great, Peter Attia says it might make sense to recheck the result without reacting to it. Typically, patients might have blood checked two to four times a year while an intervention is underway, such as whether a drug had the desired outcome, or whether someone put on three pounds of muscle and lost three pounds of fat.