Health: Should You Be Tested?

CRP is just as bad for your heart as cholesterol. Do you know your level?

About a??year??ago, my doctor put me on the statin drug Lipitor. My LDL--the bad cholesterol--was a bit high, and diet and exercise hadn't reduced it very much. The drug worked. At my last checkup, about a month ago, my LDL had plunged.

As for my levels of c-reactive protein, or CRP--who knows? My doctor didn't test for it, and it didn't occur to me to ask. But two reports in last week's New England Journal of Medicine suggest that CRP may be just as important a risk factor for coronary-artery disease and heart attacks as LDL--and maybe more so. Does that...

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