Day 2: Why Cholesterol Matters - Beyond the Numbers - Doctor Warrick Bishop | Heart Attacks Are Preventable!

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Day 2: Why Cholesterol Matters - Beyond the Numbers

Host:

Doctor Warrick

Sep 27, 2025

Played 626 times

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Cholesterol

Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Cholesterol Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your cholesterol. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge, I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your cholesterol is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead!

Why Listen?

Get practical tips and science-backed advice you can apply immediately.
Learn from real-world examples and medical expertise.
Gain daily challenges to help you stay engaged and track progress.
Take charge of your heart health in a simple, effective, and engaging way.

Takeaways:

Cholesterol is not a disease, but it plays a role in one: atherosclerosis
The connection to heart attack and stroke risk
Population vs. individual risk
Fun Fact: Most people who have heart attacks have cholesterol levels in the "normal" range.
Daily Task: Find your last cholesterol test results and reflect: what do they really tell you?
Resource: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/symptoms-causes/syc-20350800?utm

Transcript:

Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

94% of Australians have at least One Risk Factor for heart disease.
59% of Australians have been Touched by heart disease.
Yet only 3% of Australians have had a Full Heart-Health Assessment in the past 12 months.

Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au

Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!

Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!

The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:

understand the present state of their heart’s health
recognise their current level of risk of suffering a heart attack
Learn the positive steps they can take to improve their situation

Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON

Transcript English

**Episode Title: Day 2: Why Cholesterol Matters - Beyond the Numbers** **Host:** Welcome back to day two. And you'll remember that we talked about cholesterol in the cell and cholesterol in particles. Well, let's be clear. When we talk about where cholesterol matters, we're really talking about cholesterol in the particle. The particular particle we're talking about is the so-called bad cholesterol particle. That's the low-density lipoprotein particle. Why is that the bad one? It has a protein on it called ApoB, and ApoB is the docking station to allow that particle to end up in the arteries, where it can deposit cholesterol in an atherosclerotic plaque. Well, what is an atherosclerotic plaque? It's where the arteries have wear and tear within them from blood pressure, from inflammation, and from the shape of the arteries. The cells in that area incite an inflammatory response, and subsequent to that, LDL particles move in there to provide cholesterol. Quite possibly starting as a healing process, if that goes awry, more and more cholesterol deposited by LDL particles ends up in that atherosclerotic plaque. It's that plaque that builds up and gives rise to coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease, heart attack, stroke, needing stents, causing all sorts of mischief. So that's why cholesterol matters, and it's cholesterol in those LDL particles. I said before that it's really important to understand that we can't predict who's going to have a heart attack from their cholesterol levels. So that's something that we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about some calcium scoring in one of the next episodes, so stay tuned for that. What I would like to let you know is, just as a fun fact, when we think about different particles, exactly the same cholesterol is in the LDL, bad particle, as there is in the HDL, the good particle. But because the HDL particle doesn't have an ApoB on it, it doesn't cause any problems. Fun fact! What's your task? I'd love you to track down your cholesterol levels and have a look at them. Keep them aside and see if they make more sense to you as we go through the challenge. Lastly, please have a listen to the accompanying podcast for a little bit more detail. As always, I'm going to wish you the very best. I hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now.