Most cardiovascular risk factors are things you accumulate. Blood pressure creeps up. LDL responds to diet and statins. Weight and smoking are choices with consequences.
Lipoprotein(a) is not like that. It is roughly 90% genetically determined, essentially fixed from childhood, and unmoved by diet, exercise, or standard cholesterol drugs. About one in five people worldwide carries enough of it to raise cardiovascular risk, and most of them have never been told.
