Cardiovascular disease extremely important considering that 1 in 3 people die from complications attributable to atherosclerosis. In order to stem the tide, education and awareness that cardiovascular disease poses the greatest threat, and measures to prevent or reverse this disease must be taken. Obesity and diabetes mellitus are often linked to cardiovascular disease, as are a history of chronic kidney disease and hypercholesterolaemia. In fact, cardiovascular disease is the most life-threatening of the diabetic complications and diabetics are two- to four-fold more likely to die of cardiovascular-related causes than nondiabetics. Screening ECGs (either at rest or with exercise) are not recommended in
Helen Hobbs Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Cardiology Research, Philip O'Bryan Montgomery Jr., M.D., Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology, and Eugene McDermott Distinguished Chair for the Study of Human Growth and Development. In 1999, she co-founded the Dallas Heart Study with Dr. Jonathan Cohen with a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. This study takes genetic samples of thousands of people, representative of the population of Dallas, and correlates them to the subject's health metrics. Through this study, she found that variations in the gene PCSK9 led to increased protection from cardiovascular disease. Recent results from the genetic study show that