Getting to grips with genetic twists

MR A was very careful with his food and ate only fish and vegetables for his meals. He exercised regularly in the belief that exercise would raise the high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) or "good" cholesterol, and protect him from heart disease. His low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) or "bad" cholesterol was mildly elevated. Hence, he was surprised to learn that he had a severe narrowing of one of his major heart arteries. While this may seem rather unusual, advances in genetic studies are helping us to understand this better.

Although 99.5 per c…