Day 3: The Plaque Problem - Understanding Atherosclerosis - Doctor Warrick Bishop | Heart Attacks Are Preventable!

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Day 3: The Plaque Problem - Understanding Atherosclerosis

Host:

Doctor Warrick

28 Sep. 2025

Played 612 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:

How cholesterol contributes to plaque buildup in artery walls
The role of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction
Why soft plaque is the real danger
Fun Fact: Not all plaques are visible on a stress test.
Daily Task: My heart attack TEDx
Resources: https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/heart-health-check-toolkit/cholesterol-and-heart-disease?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 3: The Plaque Problem - Understanding Atherosclerosis"** **Host:** Welcome back! Today we're talking plaque—atherosclerotic plaque, that stuff that builds up in the arteries and can cause us problems. Well, as I mentioned previously, it's at points of wear and tear and inflammation, and that whole process ends up with cholesterol being deposited within the lining of the blood vessels. Now, this is really important to understand. As that cholesterol builds up, it can do two things. The cholesterol can continue to build up and become inflamed and vulnerable to rupture. If it ruptures, that ruptured plaque can cause a clot to form within the artery, blocking it completely. But we can also see that fatty plaque, that cholesterol-dominant plaque, become more stable and calcified, which reduces the risk of heart attack. So, plaque is a point of wear and tear. Atherosclerosis can have a fatty component, which tends to carry the risk, or it can have a more calcific component, which doesn't tend to carry as much risk. This is what we're trying to manage when we're managing cholesterol, so there's a fair bit of complexity around that. Really importantly, though, one of the things you need to be aware of is that as that plaque is building up and can be at risk of rupture, it may not give any signs at all. It may not be limiting blood flow within that artery; it may just be building up in the wall. This means that people can be at really high risk of heart attack even though they may pass a stress test because that blood vessel is not narrowed. They may actually have no symptoms whatsoever until the very first symptom, which is a rupture of plaque. That's not a fun fact, but it's an important fact to hold on to. I'm going to ask you, as your daily task, to check out a TEDx presentation I did on this very topic. It's really important you understand it, and it's really important you understand it because our next discussion, our next day in our challenge, is all about finding out who's at risk. So stay tuned! Follow up on that. For now, I do wish you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now!