Lowering the Risk of Heart Disease
Like millions of other Americans, I come from a family with a history of the heart disease. My father had his first three heart attacks when he was only thirty-one. I was three years old at that time. I grew up with heart disease. It was there, but I didn"t take it seriously.
When I was thirty-one, my blood cholesterol (胆固醇) level was measured for the first time. It was 311 mg/dl, the doctor told me—an extremely high level that put me at a very high risk of heart disease, especially with my family history. He sent me to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be screened for participation in a clinical trial. The trial was designed to test the effect of lowering blood cholesterol on the risk of heart disease.
At NIH, physicians explained the degree of risk associated with my blood cholesterol level and the nature of the experiment. This test involves putting a tube through a leg artery (动脉) up to the heart. The death rate for the test was only 1 in 100, I was assured.
Learning about the risks of the experiment as well as the risk associated with my raised blood cholesterol level scared the life out of me. Although I was excluded from participating in the study, the experience may well have saved my life.
For the first time, I began to realize the seriousness of high blood cholesterol. It was a heart attack just waiting to happen. But equally important, I got a taste of what it is like to be a patient, to have tests done on me and to think of myself as sick. This was hard to take.
This experience taught me two lifesaving lessons. First, although I felt fit and strong, I was actually at high risk for heart disease because of my high blood cholesterol level. And with my family history, it could not be ignored. Second, I could lower my blood cholesterol level simply by changing what I ate. The writer had heart disease because ______.