Interview with Dr. Neal Carl, MD
What is inflammation?
Inflammation is what makes the development of a disease possible. Take, for example, cholesterol. A lot of people are worried about their cholesterol, but does it really matter? The answer is probably not, unless it causes plaque that gets inside the arteries and that cholesterol gets inflamed or oxidized.
How do I know if my arteries are inflamed?
We can look at markers through our advanced lab testing to let patients know if the artery wall itself is inflamed. If there is a true risk for developing plaque, there are several markers that you may have already looked at – one is called CRP, or C Reactive Protein Ip-PLA2, which we call the plaque test. Once we’ve looked at a number of different inflammatory markers, we can help reverse the issue through a change in lifestyle or supplements. We are able to treat inflammation without even using prescription medications.
What other prevention methods are possible?
Beyond the inflammatory markers, we can do something called imaging. The first of these tests is called CIMT, which stands for Carotid Intima-Media Thickness test. With that simple test, we can determine if the carotid artery is too thick – whether it has hard plaque or soft plaque – in fifteen minutes. We can follow that up by doing a CT Calcium score to see if there is any calcium in the arterial blood vessels. The imaging tests help us determine what somebody’s true risk factor is and what the treatment should be.
